


Miracle or Impossible.

by inanimeland



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gaming, I don't really know how far i'll take it since it came out of nowhere, M/M, Past Child Abuse, slight depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-03-28 21:38:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 40,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3870655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inanimeland/pseuds/inanimeland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“Kaizuka Inaho huh? I’ll get my payback on that stupid Orange someday.”</em>
  <br/>
  <em>"Slaine Troyard, his skill was quite impeccable. Let’s see how much fun we can have, Bat.”</em>
  <br/>
  <em>“Ah, Slaine and Inaho-san huh. This is going to be a fun year.”</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a highschool AU, so any mention to Aldnoah. Zero would be the characters referring to a computer game that goes by the same title. This is my first fanfic so I tried hard to incorporate the mechanics of the game in the work, but if it's still confusing then see the endnotes! Thanks for reading!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone for reading this! This is my first fiction, but I love Orangebat so much that I think I might make more. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

_Master Switch: On. Main Engine: Start. Asimov OS booting up. monitors are functional, indicating Fuel Cell Batteries are heating up. Voltage: Check. Accumulator Pressure: Check. Tactical Datalink, activated. All Systems: Green._

Just as Kaizuka Inaho finished his precautionary check of his Orange Sleipnir, he was off of his ship and headed straight for the Tanegashima port. His target was the Versian Kataphrakt Hellas who stood at the peak of the mountain shooting off relentless attacks with her many fists.

“Mustang 11, Were going too!,” Kaizuka Yuki shouted out to Inko as she chases after her younger brother.

“Nao-kun, what do you think you’re doing? Don’t run off like that! ” Yuki-nee clamored to Inaho over the public communication line.

Just as Yuki-nee said that however, Inaho noticed a Versian Skycarrier flying overhead making its way towards Tanegashima island. Leaving the Skycarrier alone for a moment, Inaho, content at the Mustang Team’s location decided it’s time to take on the female Kataphrakt sensing that the Skycarrier overhead may actually be of some help than of harm to him at the moment. Hellas launched a new wave of attack, but despite the relentless waves of attacks, Inaho kept his focus thinking, “ _At the velocity and distance that those hands move at, we should be able to apply just a little force to throw off the pathway of those hands_.”

“Enemy unit at 4 o clock” Yuki-nee shouted hoping that Inaho would focus a little more on the battle, and Inko started to open fire at the highspeed hand heading in their direction. Yuki-nee and Inko panic as their AP rounds do no damage to the fist enclosing their location, but Inaho continued to think about a strategy showing no signs of panic. Just before the hand made impact, the Versian Skycarrier shot it out of the way changing its course from the Mustang group into the Tanegashima Bay.

“ _That Martian aircraft will cover us_ ,” He thought as he continued to formulate his plans to take down Hellas. As Inaho was calculating, the pilot of the aircraft and him reached the same conclusion as the Versian aircraft lowered itself allow Inaho to jump on.

“Opening up private channel,” The blond pilot of the skycarrier heard as he stabilized himself with the Orange Kataphrakt now abroad.

“Nao-kun don’t! That’s a Martian!” Yuki-nee exclaimed only for Inaho to reply saying, “Yuki-nee, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Patch me into your network, Bat” Inaho said through his com link to the skycarrier.

“B-Bat?!” The blond pilot questioned, but still followed Inaho’s request.

The two worked flawlessly together and managed to destroy four of Hella’s arms before the Countess had decided to make her move and personally attack the skycarrier and orange Kataphrakt.

“Oi, she’s on to us” Inaho said as calm and collected as ever.

“Shut up, Orange!” Bat clamored as he stalled out his engine to allow them a quick descent without taking any damage from the enemy Kataphrakt.

Just then, missiles were launched from the base of the Tanegashima island as a ship started to emerge. Flying past the ship the blond pilot noticed that one of the passengers was a girl with long blond hair who seemed to have activated the ship herself.

“Asseylum!” the blond pilot exclaimed, not noticing Inaho’s reaction to his outburst.

With the help of the newly emerged ship and the teamwork between the Inaho and Bat, Hella’s was taken down with one last final shot. Excited, the pilot demanded Inaho to lead him to where Assylum was, but Inaho was very skeptical about the whole situation wondering how this pilot could even know about Asseylum’s existence.

“How do you know who she is and why she’s here? ” Inaho questioned carefully as he loaded his cannon with his final HE round.

“Take me to her,” The blond pilot retaliated now pointing his guns at the Orange Kataphrakt still abroad.

“Answer the question.” Inaho stated one more time taking aim.

“Are you my enemy?” the pilot tried to say then _**BOOM**_ a sudden flash of red passed onto the Skycarrier’s screen as he assessed the damage that he has now taken to his wing. At the same moment, Inaho jumped off of the Skycarrier and watched as it fell into the sea.

“You are my enemy.” Inaho coldly said watching the Skycarrier sink.

* * *

“Aw, damn that Orange,” Slaine said as he looked at his laptop screen now showing a game over sign. Slaine sighed and started to assess his earnings and losses through this last battle he had just partaken in.

“Geez, Aldnoah. Zero is still a pretty new game. How did that guy even get that good?” Slaine questioned as he looked at the damage his skycarrier had taken and he contemplated whether he should repair it or just buy a new one. At that moment Slaine’s phone went off and he scrambled to adjust to his surrounds so that he could find his phone. Once he looked at the caller ID, his face lightened up as he answered the phone.

“Slaine!” a soft sounding voice of a girl called out, “I can’t believe that the first time we connect to this game online we were pit on different teams!”

“Asseylum,” Slaine dragged her name out, “It’s not that we were on different teams. It’s just that you were made the princess of that level and somehow ended up siding with the Terran team.”

“Ah, if you just would have converted from the Martian side to the Terran side then you could have won with us!” Asseylum exclaimed excited about winning her first round as the princess in Aldnoah.Zero.

“No, I don’t think you get it Asseylum. When we randomly entered that level, I was assigned to be a part of the Versian team. The whole point of the game is for the princess to either side with the Versian or Terran team at the end of taking down a boss, like Hellas.” Slaine tried to explain to his childhood friend, Asseylum, who just started playing Aldnoah. Zero today.

“Then why did you work with Inaho-san?” Asseylum questioned genuinely confused about Slaine’s actions.

“Inaho? Ah, you mean the guy piloting the Orange Kataphrakt? That’s cause it’s impossible to take out one of the boss Kataphrakts alone, so our goals coincided for the moment. I also voice connected to him, so he probably realized that I was looking for you and thought that I was going to try and take you back to the Versian side with me. That was my mistake, but that stupid Orange didn’t have to shoot me since I was already heavily outnumbered! Now I lost my skycarrier and have a loss on my record.” Slaine groaned as he complained to Asseylum, “also Asseylum, how come you chose to side with the Terran side despite me being put on the Versian team?”

“Oh, that’s because the people I was chatting with said we had a common goal, but I didn’t mention I was the princess for that level until I realized that only I could power that flying ship! It must’ve been one of those secret weapons that only the princess assigned to that level could unlock!” Asseylum answered with joy in her voice from being an important player and one of the reasons that the Terrans won the level.

“Just my luck that you had to be the princess when it was your first time playing huh,” Slaine said back sounding cheerful that Asseylum was happy. “ Oi, I have to go but I won’t lose next time Asseylum, and hey who knows I might be a Terran and you a Versian next time” Slaine chuckled as he heard Asseylum pout over the phone at the shock that Slaine and her may not end up on the same team yet again when they play.

“That’s fine Slaine! I hope I at least get Inaho-san on my team again, whether that be Versian or not!” Asseylum stated with a somewhat proud-like tone, “Oh, and goodbye Slaine. It was nice talking and playing with you like this before you transfer to our school! It makes me feel like you never moved away from here!”

“Haha, that’s good Asseylum. Well then I’ll see you on Monday, and hopefully we can be in the same class this year. Also, I’ll be moving back into the house next to yours so we can hang out again like old times instead of only talking through the phone! Bye Asseylum.” Slaine closed his phone and laid back thinking about Orange who totally stole his thunder for the day.

_“Kaizuka Inaho huh? I’ll get my payback on that stupid Orange someday.”_

* * *

Inaho stared at his screen shining with his stats and earnings for that playthrough. Nothing in that last round particularly stuck out to him because he happened to accidently discover who the princess was early on in the game.

“ _Seylum-sempai was horrible at keeping her position hidden_ ,” Inaho thought as he went and laid down in his bed.

“NAO-KUN!” Yuki-nee shouted as she barged into his room, “You practically won that round for us, but did you know the pilot of that Martian Skycarrier? It seemed as though you’ve played with him before.” Yuki-nee went on continuing to ask.

“Bat? I don’t think I’ve ever played with him before. He was a very skilled player and apparently he knew Seylum-sempai so it was a good thing that I convinced her that our side was the right choice for this level.” Inaho replied “Oh, but Seylum-sempai did tell me after the game that his name is Slaine Troyard who is her childhood friend that should be coming back to this area of Japan soon and even transferring into our school.”

Just as Yuki-nee was going to reply to Inaho she shouted, “ Oh my gosh! I totally forgot to prep my lesson for Monday! How could you let me sit around and play Aldnoah. Zero all day when I don’t even have my lesson plan ready” Yuki-nee proclaimed to her younger brother whose expression never changed, even at her sudden outburst.

“Hmmm, well that’s not really my responsibility now is it Yuki-nee?” Inaho said as he slightly smirked at his stupdified sister.

“Ah, if that’s the case then there will be no ride for you on Monday to school!” Yuki-nee taunted thinking she finally had the upperhand on Inaho.

“That’s okay. It’s only 10 minutes by subway then another 10 by walking. It’s not like I will be late.” Inaho said matter-of-factly landing the final shots on Yuki-nee’s pride as an older sister.

“My little Nao-kun has grown up and doesn’t need me to watch over him anymore~~” Yuki-nee pouted as she left Inaho’s room.

“That’s not what I meant,” Inaho tried to say to her but she just turned around and chuckled at him before leaving to her own room.  
Returning to laying down on his bed, Inaho rested.

_“Slaine Troyard, his skill was quite impeccable. Let’s see how much fun we can have, Bat.”_

* * *

Asseylum just getting off the phone with Slaine turned back to her computer to log off of Aldnoah. Zero. Just before she did a thought struck her and she opened a chat to Inaho.

“Inaho-san” she typed and waited briefly for a reply.

“Yes, Seylum-sempai” Inaho responded not even a minute later.

“It’s about Slai- no, that Skycarrier you teamed up with. How did you know that he could be trusted?” She questioned him.

“It was only a matter of our interests temporarily coinciding” Inaho replied instantly.

Asseylum laughed as she read his reply and thought, “ _for those two not knowing each other, their thought patterns are exactly the same_.”

“ _Well then Inaho-san, as another prize for winning that round I’ll tell you his identity. He is Slaine Troyard a childhood friend of mine. He should be back in Japan in about 2 days, so he’ll be transferring into our school on Monday! Also, he is going to be a year above you so I guess that makes him Troyard- sempai to you~_ ” Asseylum typed back to him wondering about where this would go.

“On Monday? Then I guess I will try to make his acquaintance if he wants to. I did shoot him out of the sky causing his loss today however” Inaho said promptly.

“It’ll be fine, I can’t wait for the two of you to meet! I’ll talk to you again on Monday Inaho-san and try to help bridge a friendship! Bye, talk to you later!” Asseylum typed back quickly.

She saw Inaho replying to her back to her, but logged out quickly and closed her laptop thinking how this new friendship is going to turn out.

_“Ah, Slaine and Inaho-san huh. This is going to be a fun year.”_ Asseylum thought and smiled.


	2. Unexpected Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No way is he telling this stranger that he looked beautiful Inaho mentally groaned.  
>  _“Ah, Orange.”_  
>  _“Bat.” ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that I update so slowly! Its my finals week coming up, so i've been studying and writing this in my free time. The summary was horrible, but the chapter should be better! BTW, Inaho is pretty OOC this chapter, it's a tad bit hard to get his stoic nature across...

**_BRIING, BRIING, BRIING_ **

Inaho groaned as he turned around to turn off his alarm. “ _7:10…7:10!”_ The time flashed through his drowsy mind and caused him to jump and make sure that the time was right. _“I overslept. Did Yuki-nee not wake up either?”_ Inaho mentally questioned as he left his room to go and check on his sister.

**_KNOCK, KNOCK_ **

“Yuki-nee, it’s 7:10. We need to start getting ready; do I need to make breakfast?” He called out and waited for a response.

“…”

“Oi Yuki-nee, we’ll be late if we don-” Inaho tried saying again, but got cut off by the sound of his phone ringing. Going back to his room, he picked up his phone, making sure to check the Caller ID before picking up.

“Nao-kun, are you awake?!” an energetic voice came through the phone causing Inaho to move it away from his ear slightly.

“Haaaah, obviously I am Yuki-nee or I wouldn’t have answered the phone” Inaho said while starting to yawn.

“Well you better hurry or you’ll be late, Nao-kun! I remember what you said the other day and it should only take you 20 minutes to make it here by subway and walking, right~?” Yuki-nee said tauntingly to Inaho as she remembered her conversation with him after their last round of Aldnoah.

“Is this about what happened after playing Aldnoah. Zero last time? If so, I hope “revenge” plan comes to fruition” Inaho sarcastically stated to his sister, “by the way, by calculating what time it is and how much time it should take, I’ll be at school with plenty of time to spare. See you soon, Yuki-nee” he finished and hung up the phone with a smirk.

After putting his phone down, Inaho’s stomach started to growl signaling him to head towards the kitchen and make a quick breakfast for himself. While taking out the frying pan to make eggs, which he got on sale, he realized that none of the dishes have been touched since he washed them last night. “ _Maybe I shouldn’t have provoked her so much. Knowing her I bet she didn’t eat breakfast just so she could leave the house before me”_ Inaho thought whilst reflecting on his actions, and instead of making breakfast he started making a bento for Yuki-nee. _“I’ll need to make sure to give this to her before lunch starts and she either starves or wastes money on bread.”_ After finishing Yuki-nee’s bento, Inaho went ahead to the bathroom and started to get ready for school. Like a perfectly timed machine, exactly 10 minutes later he left his apartment heading towards the subway. “ _7:40, I just missed this train but if I take the next subway at 7:45 then I’ll make it to my stop at 8:10 and if I make no stops on the way to school then I’ll reach by 8:20. That would leave me 10 minutes to give Yuki-nee her bento, get to class, and prep for the day.”_ Inaho sighed as he waited on the subway platform making sure his mental computations were correct so he could spoil his sister’s revenge plan.

  ** _WHOOOSH_**

The subway sounded as it pulled up to the platform Inaho was on. _“Right on time”_ Inaho thought to himself as he stepped on and looked for a spot, _“It’s pretty crowded on he- oh, two spots just opened up.”_ He steadily made his way towards the seats as he smoothly avoided the crowd rushing to get off and make their way to work. He took out his phone and checked the time _“7:48, no 7:49 so in one minute we’ll be heading out_ … _…7:50.”_

“WAIT!” shouted a young blond boy who just barely made it through the closing doors.

“Dear passengers, if you would please avoid doing dangerous stunts before, during, and after boarding times, thank you” said the train attendant who clearly must’ve seen the blond boy’s successful attempt at boarding. Now that everything seemed fine, the train headed out of the station.

“Ah, sorry” the boy’s face slightly flushed as he chuckled those words out.

“ _7:52. This guy managed to hold the subway up by 2 minutes. Looks like I might be cutting it close”_ Inaho checked his phone again and made an audible sigh.

“Is this seat taken?” the blond boy suddenly asked Inaho making him look up from his phone and put his calculations on hold for a moment.

“No, you can take it” Inaho replied taking in the looks of the boy now sitting next to him. “ _He’s wearing the same uniform as me, but his ribbon is blue? A second year then, and his face looks flushed. Probably from running to the subway and the embarrassment from being called out, maybe it’s because his face is flushed that he looks kind of …delicate? Ah, and his eyes. Green, but they’re so clear that I can almost see a bluish tint. It’s really…”_

“Beautiful” Inaho covered his mouth as he uttered the words.

“Hmm, did you say something” the blond boy looked as Inaho slightly concerned.

“Oh, it was nothing” he replied. No way is he telling this stranger that he looked beautiful, Inaho mentally groaned wondering where the thought even came from.

“You’re wearing the same uniform as me and your ribbon is orange, which makes you a first year right? I’m sorry, but I just finished moving late last night and my neighbor left before me this morning so I still have no idea where the school is. Could you wake me when it’s our stop and show me the way?” The blond boy asked curiously.

“No problem” Inaho responded curtly, not trying to sound disinterested in the thought.

The blond boy’s face lightened up as he thanked Inaho and then started to doze off.

“ _He only has 3 minutes to sleep. Now that he’s resting, you can tell that he has pretty pale skin. I really can see that he looks as delicate as a doll; if it wasn’t for his breathing you’d hardly tell that he’s alive. It’s somewhat shocking how loud his voice came out to be though when he yelled for the subway to wait.”_ Inaho mused as he stared at his phone waiting for the subway to stop. _“8:12, right on time”_

**_WHOOOOSH_ **

“Thank you for riding with us, please enjoy the rest of your day” the same train attendant from earlier called out.

Inaho stood up and turned to the boy next to him.

“We’re here” Inaho said.

“…”

“This is our stop” He raised the volume of his voice slightly but to no avail. The blond boy was still sleeping and showed no signs of waking up. Inaho shook him slightly, but the boy was in a deep sleep.

 “The doors are about to close” Inaho heard in the background signaling him that it was time to get off.

“ _Sorry, sempai. I’ve got to go.”_ Inaho turned, leaving the boy in his seat, and walked off the subway not even looking behind him when the doors closed. “ _I wasted another minute just trying to wake him, so I have 7 minutes to get to class. I guess Yuki-nee did succeed in her plan after all.”_ After having altered his pace to a faster speed, Inaho made it past the gates just as the gates were being shut and the bell started sounding.

“INAHOOOO” a booming voice called out from one of the windows on the 1st floor. “Inaho, hurry up or you’ll be late” the voice continued to yell from the window.

“Shh Inko, I’ll get caught by a teacher out here before I even make it to class from all your yelling” Inaho mouthed to her to avoid the patrolling teacher that was now starting to look for the source of the yelling. Inaho walked towards the window Inko was just yelling out of and handed the girl his stuff as he leapt through the window. “Safe” he said calmly as the girl holding his stuff started to giggle.

“Safe my butt, Inaho. It’s rare that you’re late” Inko chuckled out as she started to hand Inaho a pair of indoor shoes.

“Thanks Inko” Inaho took the shoes and switched off with the ones he was wearing.

“You’re just lucky we have Marito-sensei for 1st period since he likes to slack and come in late or you would have been screwed” someone voiced from behind Inaho.

“Calm, you should be more careful when you speak” Inaho replied.

“Hmm, why is tha-”

“So, Mr. Craftman  I like to slack right?” Marito-sensei questioned as he walked into the room. “Let’s see how much you’ve slacked off recently shall we? Please come and put the answers to last weekend’s homework on the board for us” Marito-sensei’s tone hinted to a joking sound under his sarcasm.

“Ah shit your warning was too late, Inaho” Calm grumbled as he walked to the board.

* * *

“I can’t believe you didn’t know the answer to a single one of those questions,” Inko laughed at Calm. “Even I had at least 2 of them answered!”

“Shut up, Inko… I was busy all weekend!” Calm tried defending himself.

“I bet you were just playing Aldnoah, Calm” a new voice chimed in.

“Rayet!” Inko exclaimed.

“Haah, I spent all weekend trying to beat Nilokeras and I still couldn’t beat it” Calm sighed, “Heeeeey, Inaho log on and help me beat Nilokeras later today.”

“You should try to do your work today at least” Inaho replied, “I’ll help you then.”

“Yeah, unlike you Calm, Inaho actually finishes his work and still has time to kick ass on Aldnoah” Rayet smirked at Calm.

“Is everyone somehow forgetting that I did help him stall and take down Hellas?!” Inko proclaimed, “Inaho got all the credit and most of the winnings went to him, but he had help too!”

“…Help? Ah, you mean Bat?” Inaho questioned.

“The Versian Sky Carrier, right? I saw him from the ship but since Inaho told me to watch Asseylum I couldn’t really see what was happening in battle.” Rayet said.

“Oh, I saw it too. Inaho did you know him? You guys worked well together despite playing for opposing teams.” Inko pitched in.

“I don’t know him. We just shared a common goal and thought pattern, but Seylum-sempai told me that they are childhood friends. Actually, she said that he should be transferring to our school today.” Inaho replied. Just then Inaho opened his bag and saw the bento he had placed in there for Yuki-nee. “Ah sorry guys I’ll catch up with you later, I need to go and give this to Yuki-nee” he said as he took out the bento box and started for the door.

“Oh before I came in, I heard that Yuki-san was heading for the staff room” Rayet shouted to Inaho as he exited the room.

“ _Staff room huh, that’s on the 2 nd floor. Thinking of the 2nd floor, that guy on the train was a second year right so he should be on this floor. I wonder if he made it here properly or not_.” Inaho thought as he reached the 2nd floor and started heading for the staff room door at the end of the corridor. _“I probably should have left a note with him, but then I couldn’t risk missing the stop and ending up late either. Yuki-nee wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if her plan to make me late actually worked.”_ Inaho sighed as he stood outside the staff room door. When he opened the door, Inaho saw Yuki-nee sitting at her desk and it seemed as though she was grading papers. _“So today it would have been she starved”_ Inaho mused to himself remembering what he knew her two options would have been if he hadn’t made her a bento.

“Nao-kun, you’re here!” Yuki-nee looked up from her papers excited to see if her plan worked.

“A teacher that wants her student to be late, are you sure you’re really a teacher?” Inaho sarcastically questioned as he went up to her.

“Knowing you, you’d never allow yourself to be late. However, a little panic on that stoic face of yours wouldn’t have hurt.” Yuki-nee sighed. **_GROOOWL_**.

“Kaizuka-sensei, you should eat a little before the second half of the day” Marito- sensei snickered, holding back a laugh.

“I’ll go and buy bread soon!” Yuki-nee shouted back at him as her face flushed.

“Yuki-nee” Inaho butted in and held up the bento box, “since someone left without eating, I took it upon myself to make you a bento before you starved to death.”

“Ah Nao-kun, you’re the best brother ever!” Yuki-nee’s face brightened as she took the bento from him. Inaho had decided to sit down and help Yuki-nee with grading her papers so that she could eat, but just as she was about to, the staff room door opened with a light thud and suddenly a blond boy with green eyes came in. After looking slightly confused and talking to Marito-sensei for a minute he came to Yuki-nee’s desk.

“Kaizuka-sensei? I’m the new 2nd-year transfer student and I heard that you are my homeroom teacher…” the blond boy said with a hint of awkwardness.

“Ah… yes that’s right!” Yuki-nee exclaimed and turned to Marito-sensei to ask him to go and get the class representative from her classroom before turning back to the boy standing in front of her. “How come you’re so late though?” Yuki-nee questioned as she put down her chopsticks so that she could seem more professional.

“I got a bit lost while riding the train…I asked another student for help, but I ended up falling asleep and the other student left me so I kind of missed the stop. I ended up making it to the end of the line before I woke up and noticed what was happening, but luckily I found my way here.” The boy said tiredly. Recognizing that voice and situation Inaho looked up from the paper he was grading and suddenly made eye contact with the blond boy.

“AH, YOU!” The blond boy suddenly shouted and pointed at Inaho surprising him and Yuki-nee.

“Oh, it’s nice to see that you made it here before the day ended.” Inaho calmly replied to the boy’s shout.

“‘Nice before the day ends’ my butt! Do you know how much I had to go through to get here because you didn’t wake me up!” the blond boy practically hissed at Inaho.

“I tried to wake you thrice” he replied still as calm as ever.

“Nao-kun, do you know him?” Yuki-nee asked confused about the exchange taking place in front of her.

“I don’t, but I have met him before.” Inaho replied curtly.

“He was the one that left me on the train.” The boy proclaimed and slightly glared at Inaho.

“I had no choice, you weren’t waking up and I would’ve been late if I had stayed with you. According to the time and my own needs, that was the best plan of action.” Inaho refuted, before hearing Yuki-nee clear her throat.

“Ah, I see how it is. Well since you two stepped off on the wrong foot why don’t we try to make a better second impression!” Yuki-nee tried to ease the tension from the two of them. “This brown haired boy is my little brother and 1st-year Kaizuka Inaho, and this boy here is the student who recently returned to Japan, Slaine Troyard!”

Suddenly the two boys looked at each other with slight astonishment.

_“Ah, Orange.”_

_“Bat.”_


	3. Our First Bet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Voltage, check, Oil pressure, check. Temperature, check. RPM’s normal. Force feedback checking program, start. IFF confirmed. Tactical Datalink, activated. All Systems Green. “Let’s go Orange!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay you guys! More clarification on the Aldnoah. Zero game. Since the Versian Kataphraktoi are being used as bosses, the Martians have the choice of either using a KG-7 Areion or a Sky Carrier and then they can buy modifications to either of the two only if they bought and own them though. With the Terrans, they have a choiceof using the KG-7 Areion or the KG-6 Sleipnir, same as the Martians if they own it then they can buy modifications for them. If a machine you own in destroyed during a level then it can not be respawned and has to be bought again. Inaho owns a KG-6 Sleipnir and prefers to play with that kataphrakt while most people prefer to play with the KG-7 because it holds better modifications and base conditions. Slaine previously owned a Sky Carrier, but since it was destroyed he bought a new one. He also owns a KG-7 as well. If there are any questions or something is wrong then feel free the comment! Sorry for the late update guys!

_“Ah, Orange”_

_“Bat”_

“Hmmm, so you’re the bastard that not only shot me out of the sky but also left me on the train.” Slaine said recalling the two previous events that happened cause of the boy now staring at him.

“Both were for my best interest” Inaho retorted and started to take the boys look in again. “ _Even though he looked so calm earlier, this guy can really glare daggers."_

“Well aren’t you quite the calculating one” Slaine observed while continuing to watch Inaho.

“And you seem to be rather emotional” Inaho replied and watched Slaine’s face flushed slightly. “Ah, see your face just reddened a bit. Not too good at hiding emotions are you?”

Yuki-nee, confused as to how the tension rose, was starting to sense that her intervention did more harm than help to these two. “ _What do I do, you can practically see the hostility between them…Where is my class representative at!”_ As if the timing was planned, the door opened and a familiar blond girl walked into the room with a smile plastered on her face.

“Slaine! You made it, I was almost worried that you wouldn’t show up today~” Asseylum’s voice rang out but Slaine was still focused on his glaring battle with Inaho so Asseylum turned to Yuki. “Sorry for being late Kaizuka-sensei, I was attending to other matters when Marito-sensei came to inform me.”

“Ah it’s okay Asseylum, I just needed you to help show the new student from our class around but it seems as if you already know him…” Yuki trailed off and visibly relaxed when she saw Slaine finally look away from Inaho and at Asseylum.

“Asseylum, why in the world would you leave me on my own when it’s my first day?” Slaine questioned with a smile, but behind it was the hostility he still had from meeting with Inaho again.

“Ah um, I had early morning duty and you still seemed tired” She started to reply as she awkwardly glanced away suddenly seeing that it was Inaho that Slaine was previously staring at and talking to. “Inaho-san, you were here!”

“Asseylum don’t brush me—” Slaine got interrupted by Inaho suddenly speaking up.

“Good morning to you, Seylum-sempai” He replied to her.

“It seems as though you and Slaine have already made acquaintance?” She half stated and half questioned.

“Me and him? I’d rather—” Slaine was interrupted again by Inaho.

“Not a very pleasant one. He seems to hold grudges and is frankly really emotional.” He responded and looked at Slaine out of the corner of his eye.

“Oi… Kaizuka, stop interrupting me will ya’” anger started seeping through Slaine’s voice out of sheer annoyance for the brown haired boy in front of him.

While Slaine and Inaho engaged in another glaring battle, Yuki called Asseylum to her and asked her if she wouldn’t mind escorting Slaine, since her question was interrupted by said boy earlier. The tension in the room was certainly building up and Marito-sensei decided it was time for him to leave and stop by anywhere else but here. Yuki was thinking of trying to do the same when she saw Asseylum go over and talk to Slaine, breaking his eye contact with Inaho. “ _Seriously, if I knew it’d turn out like this then I wouldn’t have even tried introducing them; however, Nao-kun’s face seems to be amused. Did this boy really pull an emotion of out Nao?”_ Yuki contemplated as she let out a huge sigh.

“Okay, Okay. That’s enough out of the two of you guys for now. Asseylum please take Slaine on a tour of the school and show him where everything is, and Nao-kun you go and head back to class. Thank you for the bento though!” Yuki-nee finished as she dismissed the trio in front of her relieved that the tension was finally going to ease.

“Kaizuka” Slaine turned around to face the boy walking slightly behind him as they left the room. “Don’t think I’ll forget this!”

“It doesn’t really matter whether you forget this or not. I was only doing what was best for me.” Inaho countered in a nonchalant manner. Having enough of whatever was going on, Inaho diverged from the duo in front of him and walked towards the staircase turning back to look at Slaine one more time before departing.

“Haah, how is it possible to be so annoyed by a person I just met?” Slaine turned to Asseylum and questioned.

“He has his cute moments! Like when he smiles unexpectedly!” Asseylum answered back excited to see that the two boys have met each other. “ _Even if they didn’t have a good start, it’s still interesting”_ she chuckled to herself.

“ _He can smile?”_ Slaine inwardly questioned. _“He seems so emotionless. A cute moment… ‘Beautiful’…!”_ Slaine suddenly blushed all the way up to his ears when he remembered the word that Inaho let slip out when they first saw each other on the train. “ _No, no, no he was not talking about me. He must’ve been talking about someone or something else. He does seem like the type that would be thinking about other things all the time; however, even if I dislike him I can’t say I dislike the color of his eyes. The way they glow, it’s kind of alluring.”_ Slaine felt that his face heated up more and noticed that Asseylum was staring at him with a worried look.

“Slaine? Are you okay, you’re not sick are you?” She was worried, he wasn’t used to Japan anymore, and she started to regret not accompanying him earlier.

“Ah I-I…I’m okay” Slaine breathed out to calm himself. _“What the heck am I doing blushing at thoughts of that brat and then stuttering?”_ He mentally cursed himself. He turned back to Asseylum and reassured her that I was nothing as he continued to try and calm himself from the sudden strange thoughts of his annoying new kouhai.

The rest of the day wasn’t as tough as Slaine thought it would be. Pushing Inaho to the back of his mind for the moment, he decided to whole-heartedly listen to Asseylum’s explanations about how the school works and where each of his classrooms were. Since Yuki had cleared them for the day, Slaine decided that he would rather just not go to class that day while Asseylum rushed back to class saying that she had to finish her class duties for the day and told Slaine that if he waited for her then they could go home together. Thinking that to be the best decision, he waited in the corridor on the second floor and looked out the window until Inaho suddenly popped back into his mind. _“The rest of the day wasn’t so bad, and it would have been better if it wasn’t for that freaking Kaizuka.”_ Slaine complained to himself when an idea abruptly came to him. _“I know the perfect way to settle this.”_

* * *

“Inaho, that took you quite a while,” Inko commented when Inaho returned and took his seat. “Did you see Rayet? She said she was going to stop by the staff office to hand something to Marito-sensei before heading back to class.”

“No, I didn’t see her.” He replied _“Maybe Marito-sensei stepped out earlier to speak to Rayet.”_

“Inaho, you look kind of annoyed right now” Calm pointed out as he stared at Inaho.

“I look annoyed?” He questioned clearly confused by the fact that his friend was able to decipher the look on his face.

“Yeah, did something happen in there? Maybe it was Marito-sensei! He probably said some smartass comment that made you mad didn’t he?” Calm snickered.

 “Like I said earlier Calm, you should really watch what you’re saying “Inaho sighed and pointed to the person now standing behind Calm.

“So Mr. Craftman, I’m not only lazy but now I make smartass comments, do I? Well, I do remember someone’s crappy attempt at homework this morning, let’s see if you can redeem yourself with the second half of those problems shall we?” He smirked and pointed to the board signaling Calm to attempt the questions in front of the class.

“…Inaho, your warning was too damn late” Calm murmured as he went up to the board for round two.

* * *

**_BRRING BBRING BBRING_**

“Slaine wait for me in the front okay?” Asseylum yelled out as she was preparing for her after class duties.

“Asseylum, I’ll text you… I’ve got to stop by somewhere first!” Slaine shouted back, leaving the classroom in a hurry.

 _“Hmm, that’s weird…? Did Slaine already make friends or something?_ ”Asseylum pondered and she continued to do her duties.

“ _Orange I hope he didn’t leave yet!”_ Slaine grinned and ran down the hall trying not to get lost in the mass of students filling the halls. Running down the stairs, he rushed to find Kaizuka before he left. _“Damn, which classroom was he in?!”_ Slaine was huffing as he continued to search for him in the crowd. Looking towards his left and out the window he suddenly saw a familiar build and hair color causing him to abruptly stop and rush towards the window. _“That’s Orange right? How did I pick him apart from all the other students out there?”_

* * *

“Ca—Calm!” Inko barely got out past her laughter. “You—You didn’t even do your afternoon work! You’re so dumb!”

“Shut up Inko, like you knew anything.”

“I bet she has more in head then you do” Rayet commented joining them in their classroom again.

“Oi, Rayet. Are you implying that I’m barely better than Calm?!” flustered Inko turned to Rayet and exclaimed. “Inaho, do you agree with that statement?!”

“I have no obligations to answer” He answered while packing up. _“I have to go and stop by the Super market, eggs are on sale today. I’ll head home afterwards and study until Yuki-nee comes home then I’ll make dinner.”_ Inaho got up and was about to head towards the door while his friends did the same.

“Inahoooo, help me with Nilokeras today…please?” Calm pleaded while they were walking towards the gate.

“After you finish your—“

“ORANGE!” Slaine shouted from the same window that Inko had earlier that day, interrupting Inaho’s response to Calm.

Inaho turned around slightly shocked by the booming voice that always leaves the delicate seeming blond boy. “Bat, what do you want?” he question coarsely, “I’m a bit in a hurry.”

“I have the perfect idea for making a settlement on what happened this morning!”

“…A settlement?” Now slightly interested Inaho gave his full attention to Slaine.

“Lets make a bet using Aldnoah. We’ll both log on and if we are on different teams then the team then whoever team wins will win the bet, if we are on the same team then whoever has the best stats at the end of the round will win. Sounds fair right? And if I win then I want you to politely say ‘please forgive me for my rudeness~’” Slaine teasingly said towards the stoic boy.

Without moving a muscle on his face Inaho responded, “and what merit is there for me in that?”

“Hmm, I didn’t think that far. How about if you win then you can have me do one command of your choice!” Slaine came to a conclusion.

“…fine, sound interesting enough. We’ll both log on around 7 then. See you then, Bat.”

“Alright, see you then!” Slaine grinned long enough just for Inaho to catch a glimpse. Noticing that he was grinning towards the enemy Slaine turned and flushed hoping that Inaho wouldn’t be able to see it.

“Inaho, who was that?” Inko beamed at Inaho taken by the good looks of the blond boy. “Why did he call you Orange?”

“Slaine Troyard, Asseylum’s childhood friend.”

“Inaho, why did you agree to help him” Calm whined, “You were supposed to help me Nilokeras.”

“Then we will use the Nilokeras stage as our battlefront then.”

“I want in!” Inko and Rayet proclaimed at the same.

“Do what you want” Inaho responded thinking about how if he doesn’t hurry then he’ll be late for the sale. “I’ve got to go. See you guys at 7.”

* * *

Right at 6:55 Slaine logged on to Aldnoah and planned on waiting for Kaizuka, but Inaho had already logged on ready to go. Opening a chat between the two, Slaine wondered how long he had been on thinking that he never would’ve imagined Inaho being expectant for this.

“Orange, I didn’t expect you to be on early.”

“Same to you Bat, I would suspect you got on early to check your machinery for the night though since you are one sky carrier short.”

“Did anyone ever say that you should just stop talking early on? You are seriously annoying.” Slaine typed back somewhat irked by the bluntness of the brunet. “Whatever it’s 7, lets get started.” He typed before the boy could respond.

“Let me check something momentarily.” Inaho quickly typed, _“assuming his character type from previous encounters, If I didn’t respond quickly I bet he wouldv’e just started the match.”_ Inaho sighed. _“Are Calm and them on? Okay, looks like they are ready to go to.”_

“Sorry for the wait, I have some terms I want to set too. A few of my other friends are going to be playing with us, doesn’t matter which team they are on since they have promised to be impartial. Also, we will be playing on Nilokeras’ level since one of my friends can’t move on until he has beaten him. Deal?”

 _“He sure does type a lot more than he talks doesn’t he?”_ Slaine mused to himself while replying. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

After the group was made, they entered the random queue for Nilokeras’ level. Slaine’s screen went black as he waited for his team to be decided and was suddenly transported to the Shinawara Bay area. Suddenly the word Versian popped up on his screen and his new sky carrier popped up. _“I had to go and buy a new sky carrier cause of this jerk, at least I made some more modifications for this one. Now then, who is on my team?”_ Slaine moved his camera around to check where his fellow teammates were placed. A caller line popped up on his screen and due to the suddenness, he answered without checking who it was.

“Hello? This is Rayet, I’m one of Inaho’s friends.” Rayet’s voice came through Slaine’s headset.

“Ah, okay. This is Slaine, looks like we’ll be working together against Oran- Kaizuka. That’s okay with you correct?”

“Hell yeah, I was waiting for a chance to wipe that smug look off Inaho’s face.” Although Slaine couldn’t see her, he was sure that she was smirking just now.

“Then let’s get to it!” Slaine exclaimed. _Voltage, check, Oil pressure, check. Temperature, check. RPM’s normal. Force feedback checking program, start. IFF confirmed. Tactical Datalink, activated. All Systems Green. “Let’s go Orange!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aldnoah. Zero is a computer game that is similar to the anime. When entering online mode, the game will randomly select one character to play the role of the Versian Princess. The princess has the power to control the Aldnoah Drive which powers secret weapons such as the Deucalion. The other players are then randomly selected to either be a Terran or Martian. The purpose of the game would be to defeat the boss on that level, the bosses being Noble Kataphraktoi. After defeating the boss, whichever team that has total annihilation loses or whichever side the princess is on wins. The placement of princess, Martian, and Terran is completely random so whenever a player logs in online they will randomly be selected into their role meaning that it isn't certain that they'll always be a Terran or Martian. There are 20 people per team all randomly selected based on the level that is chosen; however, if a person wishes to play with friends then they are allowed to make a group and enter the stage as a group but they may be split up to differing sides. If a person has not beat a certain Boss level then they are not allowed to advance stages.


	4. Keep On Keeping On Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Damn it, it had to be Orange that predicted the aerial raid. We are at a serious disadvantage right now.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to update more often, but these next few chapters are going to be hard to write so bear with me! I have updated the end notes with new information about the Aldnoah game so you should probably read that so you aren't confused. Thank for reading as always!

_Voltage, check, Oil pressure, check. Temperature, check. RPM’s normal. Force feedback checking program, start. IFF confirmed. Tactical Datalink, activated. All Systems Green. “Let’s go Orange!”_

Slaine checked to make sure that his KG-7 Aerion was fully functional. “ _Will Orange suspect that I am in a Sky Carrier during this battle as well? Hopefully my change of machinery will shock him since I haven’t finished my modifications on my new Sky Carrier yet._ ”Looking around, Slaine took in his surroundings. They were playing in Shinawara, meaning that there is a school large enough to hide Kataphraktoi at the north end of the map and a bay at the south end. Slaine realized that he and his fellow Martians were all located on the South end meaning that Orange and the Terrans were located towards the school. “ _We are near the bay, leaving the Terran’s near the school. If my memory is correct Nilokeras should spawn in the middle of the map about fifteen minutes into the game, this gives us about ten minutes to form formations and squads. I doubt the Terrans would try to launch an attack during that time too. To win we will need to either secure the princess or completely annihilate the Terrans. Time to open an all chat line and discuss this with the rest of my team.”_ After clicking a few buttons, Slaine heard a ringing throughout his headset.

“Hello, my name is Slaine Troyard and I am piloting the KG-7 Areion that is located on the bridge. I am aware that everyone can see the positions of our allies on the mini map but if anyone is still new to the game then remember that the Sky Carriers and Purple KG-7’s are on our side.”

A chorus of yes’s rang out throughout his headset confirming that everyone knew who friend and foe is.

“Slaine-kun, my name is Orlane. As you can see there are only 8 out of the 20 of us using Sky Carriers. I have already opened a private chat with the rest of them and we will be fighting as two squadrons with four members each. Does the rest of the team mind?” Orlane rang out with a confident voice clearly showing she knew what she was doing.

A mixture of “I don’t minds” and “Do what you want” echoed a response to her question; however everyone realized it was meant to be more of a statement then a question anyways.

“What are the Sky Carrier Squadron names going to be then?” Rayet voiced out with equal confidence towards Orlane refusing to be intimidated by someone on her own team.

“We will call ourselves the Lokai and Shire Platoons and number off from 22 to 44.”

“Then we will split the remaining 12 Kataphraktoi into three Platoons of four each. Those with the best stats will lead these Platoons.” Slaine told the rest of his team recognizing that he got lucky to be paired with an experienced group who didn’t seem as though they would try to troll during the game. 6 minutes have already gone by and the teams have finally been split even.

Slaine led the Harbinger Platoon and was entitled the name Harbinger Leader, Rayet (who turned out to be more skilled then she let on) commanded the Belgian Platoon and thus was called Belgian, Trillram, who Slaine noted was a bit too arrogant for his liking, was in charge of the Oldenburg Platoon and was designated the name Oldenburg Leader, Orlane supervised the Lokai Platoon and was Lokai Leader, and lastly a somewhat calculating lady named Mizusaki managed the Shire Platoon and claimed the title Shire Leader. By 8 minutes, all the Platoons split up to tactically place themselves in the city. They avoided being near the middle so that they would have time to prepare for attacks against Nilokeras once he spawned. Slaine’s Harbringer Platoon placed themselves towards the Eastern border of the map, Trillram’s Oldenburg taking the Western Border, and Rayet’s Belgian standing guard at the Bay. The Shire Platoon was to fly from the Bay around the Eastern Border of the map and to the Terran area, while the Lokai Platoon using the Western Border was to take off at the same time and use a pincer attack against the Terran’s. The plan was to fly overhead and allow the modified Sky Carriers to drop AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles while the remaining Carriers that had no modifications covered the others with their Howitzer Cannons. The remaining three Kataphrakt Platoons were to await the disarrayed Terran Kataphraktoi and commence attack once they entered into the city, all while avoiding Nilokeras.

“Remember that we must find the princess before the other team does! If not then we must annihilate them all that way if the princess is on their team then they will still lose, if the princess is on our team then remember to keep your position hidden from the enemy whilst looking for a secret weapon to help out” Slaine reminded his team one last time. Since no one responded, he knew that the princess was not on his team because when a person is chosen they are informed once the game starts whether they are the princess or prince in a guy’s case. _“If no one is the princess on our side then it must be someone with the Terrans. Most likely Orange is going to command them to stay off the front-lines and to look for secret weapons. I should look out for a squadron that looks as though it’s protecting one person, and if I cannot reason that person over to our side before we beat Nilokeras then I will shoot them down.”_ Slaine mentally noted getting ready for the battle that was about to ensue. The all chat was then shut off and everyone opened up small chats with only their platoon members. In case of an emergency a Platoon leader was allowed to open a chat with the other leaders, but they all knew that once they lost they were disconnected from the chat and only allowed to spectate the game so if an issue occurs they needed to inform their team quickly.

Exactly at 10 minutes Slaine looked at his mini map and saw the Lokai and Shire Platoons moved out. The Martians were pinning on taking out at least 5-7 Kataphraktoi because the Terran’s had an advantage on the land. If this map were on Tanegashima then the Martians with their Sky Carriers would have had an advantage.

“This is Harbinger Leader to Harbinger Platoon; I will warn you now that there is the potential of encountering a KG-6 Sleipnir during this battle. He is very experienced and shouldn’t be fought in a 1v1.” Slaine warned his Platoon about Kaizuka, not willing to take any chances on losing to him.

“Haaa, a KG-6? You can’t even modify that one all that much, why would anyone use it!” Harbinger 33 laughed while the other two agreed.

“This is just a precautionary warning, plus he is a good strategist when it comes to this game so be aware that he will use the Princess to his advantage.”

“Whatever you say Harbinger Leader, now then let’s get this show on the road shall we?” Harbinger 22 replied to Slaine and started to load up on HE rounds.

 _“These people probably have never played against Nilokeras before if they are loading HE rounds.”“_ Oi, you guys. Once Nilokeras appears we will have to be careful about wasting our bullets. The HE and AP rounds might work against the Terran Kataphraktoi but Nilokeras’s special ability allows him to put up a dimensional barrier. To beat him we need to throw him in the bay and stab under his right shoulder blade while avoiding Terran attacks.” Slaine informed his Platoon.

“Have you played this level before? You’re very knowledgeable about what is going to happen.” Harbinger 44 asked Slaine.

“I am playing this round for an acquaintance” was all he responded with, and only moments after that however a loud and multiple booms could be heard over the headset. _“The Sky Carrier Platoons must’ve made contact with the Terrans just now.”_

* * *

 

_Master Switch: On. Main Engine: Start. Asimov OS booting up. monitors are functional, indicating Fuel Cell Batteries are heating up. Voltage: Check. Accumulator Pressure: Check. Tactical Datalink, activated. All Systems: Green._

Inaho finished prepping his trusted Sleipnir and observed the area he was going to be battling in. Remembering the map from his first time through, he knew that he was stationed on the Northern side of the map where the school is located. _“The school is only functional for keeping a small group of Kataphraktoi, it is not an optimal location for all of us to be gathered. There are large buildings to our left and right, we will use those to our advantage; however, we need to split up quickly. There are only a solid 10 minutes before either side will start to make a move against each other.”_ Deep in thought, Inaho suddenly heard a ringing through his headset signaling that someone or a group of someone’s was trying to get through to him. Knowing that it was his probably his fellow teammates, he answered without a moment of hesitation.

“Kaizuka here.”

“Kaizuka, you’re the one piloting the KG-6 right now correct?” A male’s voice came through.

“Don’t mind me, I work most efficiently with this. What we need to be focusing on right now is splitting off into groups of five groups of four and strategically placing ourselves in places that Sky Carriers will have issues reaching. Sitting at the school we are just sitting ducks.” Inaho told the group. No one disagreed with his plans, and everyone started to form their own groups. **_RING RING_** a bell sounded through Inaho’s headset signaling another group was trying to contact him. He assumed Slaine wouldn’t try to initiate contact during the game leaving the only other choice to be his friends.

“Inaho!” Inko and Calm sounded at the same time.

“Looks like it’s me, you, and Calm versus Rayet and Slaine!” Inko happily exclaimed as she prepared for battle. “The three of us and one other is going to make the Mustang Platoon right?”

“If that is the case then yes, let’s add one more member to our group.” Inaho watched the other Kataphraktoi move about getting closer to each other as they opened chats and decided on who and what Platoon they were going to be. He then noticed that there was one Kataphrakt not moving to make acquaintance with anyone and immediately initiated contact by adding them to the call. Surprisingly they answered and the voice of a young girl came out.

“Hello my name is Eddelrittuo, do you mind if I join your Platoon?” The voice asked timidly.

“No problem” Calm answered in his usual excited way. “By the way, Inaho. Guess what happened!”

“……” After listening to what Calm had to say, Inaho’s thought pattern took a turn from the unexpected announcement. _“Well this is interesting now. Let’s see how well Bat can play against this.”_ After accepting Eddelrittuo and listening to Calm, Inaho assigned everyone their Mustang number being voted to be the leader by his two friends, Inko with 22, Calm with 33, and Eddelrittuo using 44. Once they had been taken care of, Inaho his group returned to the group chat to figure out if everyone else was ready. Besides his Mustang Platoon, Inaho would be working with the Rhinelander, Pottok, Maremmano, and Harroway Platoons. After designating which Platoon would go to which part of the map, the Mustang Platoon decided that they would stay behind at the school momentarily before having Inko and Inaho set out to the front-lines and Eddelrittuo and Calm staying closer to the back to provide support where needed.

By 7 minutes, everyone had switched from all chat to Platoon chat groups and were stationed in their respective locations. _“Assuming that we have finished our preparations quicker than the Martians did, I would say we have the upper hand now.”_ Inaho looked at the buildings surrounding the school once again. _“Something that I am worrying about is whether Bat is in a Sky Carrier or maybe a KG-7? It will slightly alter my plans depending on which, but not enough for it to affect my victory in the game. Plus, Calm needs to win or he’ll annoy me with trying to make him win this level until he does.”_ He sighed and started to load some HE rounds.

“Excuse me Kaizuka-kun, should we all be loading HE rounds right now?” Eddelrittuo asked when she noticed the Orange Kataphrakt was starting to load.

“Yes that’ll be great; however, I only want you to load two HE rounds and be ready to quickly switched to AP rounds after both HE land there shot. Inko and Eddelrittuo, you guys head to the west side of the school building and aim at the top floor of the tall building in front of you. We will do the same Calm on the West side of the school building.” Inaho commanded and they all set out to their spots. “You will shoot successively two times when I give you the signal and they switch to AP rounds and shot towards the sky.”

“Yes sir!” All three of his Platoon members yelled out in unison.

It was 10 minutes past the start of the game and Inaho knew that Slaine had some type of idea in his mind. _“Hopefully he doesn’t die in this first wave of attacks, that would be boring.”_ Inaho mused to himself as he looked off into the distance. Slowly but surely, he was a squadron of 4 Sky Carriers headed his way. _“Bat, you’re going to have to step your tactics up if you want to beat me.”_ He waited patiently until the Carriers were nearly overhead the buildings that the 4 Kataphraktoi were aiming at.

“Now.” Inaho signaled.

* * *

**_BOOM BOOM_ **

Slaine heard the loud boomings ring out 6, no 8 times. _“The Sky Carrier Platoons must’ve made contact with the Terrans just now. It has now been 11 minutes, hopefully we hit them before they dispersed. Knowing Orange, Shire and Lokai’s plan to eliminate 5-7 Kataphraktoi is foolhardy, but if we are lucky the ones positioned in town will become alert by this air assault and give their positions away. In that case, we can attack the Platoons who become startled and ask for air support.”_ Slaine calculated and made sure that he was loaded with AP rounds.

“Make sure you have AP rounds loaded for now!” Slaine ordered his Platoon, “It would be a waste to use HE rounds on KG-7’s right now.”

A disoriented chorus of gotcha’s and yes sir’s rang out between the three men, but Slaine could care less about their responses to him as long as they were not going to hinder his ability to fight. Another 2 minutes passed by but nothing was happening and the sounds of guns that they preciously heard had ceased. Looking around the map, no ally moved meaning that the Terran’s hadn’t given their positions away. Slaine started to feel uneasy about the plan when he realized that the Sky Carriers should be en route back towards the Bay area but they were still at the school. That’s when he noticed that the dots indicating his allies were starting to drop. _“3, no 4 Sky Carriers have disappeared off radar?! What the hell is happening over there!”_ Slaine started to fret.

* * *

“Now.” Inaho signaled.

A unison of HE rounds were then shot by the entire Mustang Platoon towards the building they were aimed towards. Soon after the two shots were released, Inaho switched cartridges to his AP rounds and let out a shower of bullets towards the sky. **_BOOM_**. _“Bingo.”_ Inaho thought to himself. _“Looks like the rest of them realized what was going on too. By blowing up the tops of those buildings we were able to create a smokescreen blocking out the Sky Carrier’s vision. Now even if we can’t see them, they must be confused meaning this is the perfect time to shoot down as many as we can before they try to make a tactical retreat.”_

The first then the second Sky Carrier fell to its doom at the sudden bombardment of AP rounds shooting at them. The Carriers were disoriented and couldn’t shot their Howitzer shots nor drop any missiles out of fear that they lost their formation and would accidently attack one of their own. **_BOOM_** , another fell out of the sky and hit one on its way down causing both to crash. Without relenting, the Mustang Platoon continued to shoot until they saw that the Sky Carriers were retreating into the direction that they came.

“INAHO, that was dangerous you idiot! Why didn’t you warn us that an air raid was coming!” Calm shouted out.

“I felt as though there was no need seeing as it clearly became obvious.”

“Calm, should you really be calling Inaho an idiot? Do you not remember what happened today at all?” Inko queried, but everyone could hear the giggles behind her voice.

“I felt that the plan was easy to catch onto as well” Eddelrittuo commented, which didn’t help Calm’s case at all.

“Okay, Okay it was just me that needed clarification then.” He sighed in defeat.

“Inko, let’s get moving to the front lines. Nilokeras should be spawning any second and it seems that two platoons have entered confrontation with the Martian team.” Inaho told Inko as he reloaded and started to run towards the city. “Calm and Eddelrittuo, remember to stay out of trouble and back up those in need while searching for useful materials!”

* * *

_“What the hell is happening over there”_ Slaine was fretting. **_RING RING_** , without any delay Slaine answered the call knowing that it was a Sky Carrier reporting what just happened.

“Platoon leaders, this is Shire Leader. Our two Platoons have taken heavy damage and we have lost a total of 4 Carriers. We are now retreating, but will need to reform and strategize again.”

“HAHAHA, what a pathetic way to crawl back after such a devastating loss.” Trillram laughed “If it was my Platoon then we surely wouldn’t have been put in such a crappy situation.”

“What was that you piece of --”

“Oldenburg Leader, you should watch your attitude before someone drags you off your high horse.” Slaine stated while making sure to interrupt Orlane before she could start something. “Lokai and Shire regroup at the Bay and make duos, you are expected to provide aerial support to the on-ground Kataphraktoi in battle. Nilokeras should be spawning any minute so do not dawdle.”

“AH” Rayet’s voice sounded through the headset “I AM DISCONNECTING, WE ARE BEING FLANKED BY TWO TERRAN PLATOONS. REQUESTING AERIAL SUPPORT NOW!” was the last thing that Slaine heard before she disconnected. As if the timing couldn’t have gotten any worse, A sudden light flashed on the mini map followed by a thud. Knowing what the sound is, Slaine sighed in annoyance at the fact that Nilokeras chose this exact moment to pop up.

“Lokai, Shire, I would hurry up if I was you. Oldenburg, move out to assist Belgian for now. My Platoon will keep away any other Platoons that may be targeting Belgian. Disperse.” Slaine hung up his call and switched back immediately to his Platoon chat. “Everyone loaded? We are moving out, watch the map as we need to avoid Nilokeras for now and attempt to keep Terran Platoons away from the Belgian Platoon.” _“Damn it, it had to be Orange that predicted the aerial raid. We are at a serious disadvantage right now.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aldnoah. Zero is a computer game that is similar to the anime. When entering online mode, the game will randomly select one character to play the role of the Versian Princess. The princess has the power to control the Aldnoah Drive which powers secret weapons such as the Deucalion. The other players are then randomly selected to either be a Terran or Martian. The purpose of the game would be to defeat the boss on that level, the bosses being Noble Kataphraktoi. After defeating the boss, whichever team that has total annihilation loses or whichever side the princess is on wins. The placement of princess, Martian, and Terran is completely random so whenever a player logs in online they will randomly be selected into their role meaning that it isn't certain that they'll always be a Terran or Martian. There are 20 people per team all randomly selected based on the level that is chosen; however, if a person wishes to play with friends then they are allowed to make a group and enter the stage as a group but they may be split up to differing sides. If a person has not beat a certain Boss level then they are not allowed to advance stages.


	5. Keep On Keeping On Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“It was Orange that pinpointed my location”_ Slaine thought as he looked at the Rifle getting ready to fire, _“I guess my luck ran out.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think that this is going to get crazy violent, but just in case i've changed my warnings. It was really hard to come up with this chapter, honestly battle tactics aren't my forte. This chapter is also lacking A LOT when it comes to OrangeBat, but do not fret! I will add tons of fluff after the game is over... I promise! I originally planned the battle only having 2 parts but it keeps getting more and more drawn out so I should be ending it in the next chapter so bear with me! Anyways as always, thanks for reading!

“I AM DISCONNECTING, WE ARE BEING FLANKED BY TWO TERRAN PLATOONS. REQUESTING AERIAL SUPPORT NOW!” Rayet shouted into her comm link as she avoided an AP round aimed at her Kat. _“What the hell! Two freaking platoons? Only one of them is attacking right now, is the second one waiting for an ambush? That might be their downfall, we can use that to our advantage.”_

“Belgian 22, I need you to fall back for a moment. Belgian 33 and 44, follow my lead! Let’s do this!” Rayet commanded her Platoon and moved forward. Swiftly, they hid moving from building to building until they were close enough to the members of the Platoon engaging them. _“Where is the air support at?”_ she questioned as she took a quick shot at one of the enemy Kataphrakts from around the building. Rayet checked the map and sighed in relief when she saw that Lokai and Shire pulled themselves together and the remaining four of them were heading her way. She also checked the location of Belgian 22 who, following instructions closely was slightly behind the group. “Belgian 22, I need you to have a full AP cartridge ready?”

“Yes ma’am!” The worried voice answered back.

 ** _RING RING RING_** Rayet answered the call and heard Orlane speak through. “This is Lokai, we have combined Platoons to make one. We have numbered off as 11, 22, and 33. We are ready at your command.”

“Good, my plan requires your assistance. On my signal we will send out our grappling hooks and latch onto the enemy Kataphraktoi. We will then forcibly start to pull them back and have Belgian 22 attack them with AP rounds, make sure to aim for their heads. I’m assuming that only Orlane and Mizusaki have the modified Sky Carriers; however, since we are pulling them closer with our hooks it will be impossible for you two to drop AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles. All of you stick to Howitzer shots and target the remaining two Kataphraktoi that won’t get hook. Belgian 33 and 44, we will also stick to AP rounds and shoot as well pull but since we are focusing and pulling them back Belgian 22 is our primary attacker. Our plan is to divide and destroy, got it?” Rayet asked making sure that her instructions were crystal clear. **_RING RING_** , another sound came through Rayet’s headset prompting her to answer after the others agreed to the plan.

“Hello, you failures.” The arrogant voice called out and infuriated Rayet within seconds of her answering.

“Where the hell are you Oldenburg Leader, we need you here! There is a second platoon waiting in ambush.” Rayet seethed out.

“We had to take a longer route to avoid Nilokeras, but with a Platoon lead by me you rats aren’t even needed!” Trillram chuckled.

“You little –” Rayet was interrupted by Orlane.

“Oldenburg, I wouldn’t get too cocky. You had the lowest stats out of all of leaders didn’t you?” Orlane provoked Trillram.

“Humph, those stats mean nothing. It is you that shouldn’t get cocky! I can hold my Platoon back if I need too.” Orlane and Rayet could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

Looking back at as to what was going on in front of them, Rayet noticed that even though the second platoon still wasn’t moving, the first one was. They were slowly trying to advance, but Belgian 33 and 44 were providing support by firing off HE rounds at the sides of the buildings causing the debris and smoke to block the enemy vision.

“Oi you arrogant piece of trash, if you want to win and really raise your stats to what you claim they are then I would suggest you hurry up and take on this second platoon.” Rayet snapped and hung up the call with Trillram and returned to her group chat with Lokai and Belgian. “Good job in holding off the enemy advances Belgian 33 and 44. Plan will commence in 5,4,3,2,1!”

In unison, the three Belgian Kataphraktoi shot out the grappling hooks and managed to lock on to the enemies. “PULL!” Rayet yelled and started to pulling her own Kataphrakt back. Belgian 22 also jumped out from behind and took aim. One of Rayet’s shots made contact with the leg of the Kataphrakt she was pulling making it easier to separate it from the others. _“The others are doing well, it seems like the enemy is too shocked to land any of their shots right now.”_ She noticed as she looked around. Belgian 22 sprayed shots and made contact with the head of Belgian 33’s targeted Kataphrakt. “Release the hook!” Rayet shouted at him, releasing the hook in time Belgian 33 jumped back to avoid the explosion from the destroyed enemy Kataphrakt. “33 go help 44 land a shot, 22 take aim at the Kataphrakt I have with me.” Suddenly, an explosion flashed on Rayet’s screen from the right. Momentarily taking her eyes off the Kataphrakt connected to her, Rayet’s screen suddenly shook and flashed red indicating that she’d been shot. _“I lost my arm, I can’t shoot!”_ “ 22 hurry!” Rayet screamed and noticed that the Kataphrakt in front of her had fallen back. Quickly releasing her grappling hook, she took cover behind one of the buildings and heard the explosion that came from where she had been standing momentarily. “What was that explosion I saw earlier?” Rayet asked her platoon.

“Belgian 44 has been taken down.” Belgian 33 responded, “I have neutralized the enemy Kat though.”

“Good job 33. 22 you really saved my butt just then, and now we just need to wait for confirmation from the Sky Carriers.”

“We have completed our duties.” Mizusaki sounded through the headset.

“Haha, they were no match for us once they were separated from the others. They didn’t even know what hit them.” Orlane laughed.

“Were in the clear then, everyone reload and prepare to advance then.” Rayet instructed the Lokai and Belgian Platoons. After everyone had checked their supplies, they slowly moved forward with Lokai leading the way. Suddenly, Lokai 33 fell out of the sky and erupted on impact with the ground. “What happened?!” Rayet was alert again and checked the map for enemy locations. During the period she was restocking, she failed to realize that the second platoon that was set up for ambush went on the move towards them. “Disperse!” she yelled a bit too late as Belgian 22 also detonated from a sudden hit from the right. Luckily Rayet, Lokai 11, Lokai 22, and Belgian 33 avoided the strikes aimed towards them and temporarily disbanded. _“We don’t have the man power, the element of surprise, or the unity right now; we can’t possible take this platoon and hope to win. Damn it!”_ Rayet mentally cursed. She looked at the map again and breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed that an ally platoon intercepted the enemy Kataphraktoi. _“That must be Oldenburg; hopefully they aren’t all bark and no bite.”_ “Oldenburg is here to back us up. Regroup and push forward!”

* * *

“ _Damn it, it had to be Orange that predicted the aerial raid. We are at a serious disadvantage right now.”_ Slaine mentally cursed. “We need to move out now!” he commanded his Harbinger Platoon. Slaine checked the mini-map and located Nilokeras who still hasn’t moved from the point he spawned at. _“Nilokeras should be at a standstill for about the next 3 minutes. That is plenty of time to move towards the Belgian Platoon and provide the necessary support.”_ Sighing, Slaine noticed the battle now going on between Belgian and one platoon from the Terran side. Luckily, the Sky Carriers pulled themselves together and were on the way to support Belgian.

“We’ll station ourselves to snipe enemy Kataphraktoi, is that clear?” Slaine asked and was welcomed with a chorus of yes’s.

Slaine checked the map once his team moved closer towards and was shocked to see that the Belgian/ Lokai Platoons had wiped out the enemy platoon; however, right after Slaine briefly looked away from the map he saw two of the Sky Carriers get shot down by the second platoon that Rayet had mentioned earlier. Oldenburg had also made their move during this time and intercepted the second platoon that was targeting Belgian/Lokai. _“What the hell, Oldenburg should have been there a long time ago. What has he been doing?”_ Slaine questioned but chose not to care about the answer due to the fact that he just doesn’t like Oldenburg leader. “Let’s pick up the pace a bit you guys, it seems like there is trouble brewing.” And that’s when he saw it. Nilokeras which had been stationary all this time was starting to move to the battle between Oldenburg and the Terrans. _“Oh shit, I forgot he moves to the move condensed area of the map!”_ Putting a call through, Slaine contacted Trillram about his tactics and whether he noticed that Nilokera was on his way.

“I don’t need YOU to tell me what I have to do.” Trillram answered back with cockiness. “I have this perfectly under control.”

“Did you not hear a word I just said? Nilokeras is on his way to YOUR location; get it through your thickhead if you want to win.” Slaine retorted, tired of hearing Trillram’s crap. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he suddenly saw that Nilokeras had reached their location in the midst of the bickering.

“I can take on Nilokeras and this platoon, Harbinger Leader so why don’t you just stay out of this.”

“Fine then.”  Slaine practically hissed, not caring about the fate of Trillram. Abruptly, he hung up the call and then watched the map waiting to see what would happen in the crossfire. _“That would be childish of me to leave them hanging. I will go and provide backup, and maybe we will be able to get away with minimal damage.”_ “You guys we are going towards Olden- ** _BOOM_** ” his computer screen flashed and the sound screeched into his ear.

“This is Harbinger 22, we are under fire! A Terran Platoon has intercepted us!” A shout came through Slaine’s comm and he instantly prepared for battle.

 “Harbinger Leader to Harbinger Platoon, we will commence attack on these Terrans. Quickly prepare for a full on frontal assault!” Slaine called back giving commands as fluently as he can for someone who was just surprise attacked.

* * *

“Will it be okay leaving Calm and Eddelrittuo together back there?” Inko queried as Inaho and her scanned the map looking for an area to go and support.

“It is our safest choice of action.” He responded planning his next action. _“Was Bat in that air raid group just then? I doubt it, none of them had his type of skill. Even caught off guard he would have been able to safely maneuver through that, however 4 of them did manage to get away. I won’t put the thought away, but I will focus my plan on him being in a Kat for now. Now then, where would he be.”_ Inaho thought, carefully watching the map. _“It looks like they are engaged in battle on the right side, Rhinelander and Pottok are both over there so it seems like they won’t need any help. Nilokeras isn’t on the move yet, he tends to head towards highly condensed areas so they will be in danger soon. We should head to the left and intercept those who are going to support the enemy platoon currently under attack.”_ “Inko, we will head left and meet up with Maremmano. They are the platoon slightly offset from the middle, there we will intercept the enemies going to aid the battle on the right.”

“How can you be sure that the enemy will still be heading that way by the time we make it?”

“Bat, I mean Slaine Troyard is on the other team. From our last battle with him, I can tell that he has similar thought patterns to mine meaning that the enemy platoons were spread around the map readying to enagage in 4v4 conflicts as soon as the air raid ended. The downfall to their plan was that we were prepared for an air raid and also the fact that we placed two Platoons more closely so that they can engage in an 8v4, thus overwhelming the Martians.” Inaho answered and then looked at the map. His thoughts and conversation with Inko had passed the time, and they were almost at the meeting point with Maremmeno; however, during the time Inaho had last looked at the map, Rhineleader had been completely overwhelmed and now Pottok was beginning to engage a whole new Platoon. _“What happened? We clearly had the upper hand in that battle. I bet Rhineleader got cocky and order Pottok to wait and attack the Martians if there were any left. Typical players who are in search for glory and rewards. We don’t have the time to go and support them, we will continue on with our current strategy.”_ Inaho sighed. “Inko, regardless of what you see on the map we will still meet up with Maremmano and intercept whatever Platoon that was stationed on the far left.”

“Okay Inaho!”

Within two minutes, Inaho and Inko came into sight of the Maremmano Platoon and a comm line was opened up between them. “This is Mustang Leader and Mustang 22, we will be assisting you in the interception of the last enemy Kataphrakt Platoon.”

“This is Maremmano Leader, we have the enemies in sight.”

“Do not engage.” Inaho said curtly. “I have a plan.”

“…” After briefly explaining the plan and working out the minor kinks, Inaho and Inko lined themselves up around the corners of the building. Suddenly placing one knee on the ground, Inaho and Inko stabilized themselves and loaded HE rounds into the Sniper Rifles that they were equipped with the while Maremmano Platoon disbanded and strategically placed themselves behind building outside of Inaho and Inko’s range of fire but still in firing capacity of the Platoon they were about to engage. “On my signal we fire, Maremmano you know what to do.”

“Just don’t accidently hit one of us.” Maremmano Leader joked and raised the hand on his Kat to signal that his group was ready and the other group was in firing range.

“5,4,3,2,1, Now!” Inaho commanded and fired his rifle. The shot missed and hit the ground near one of the enemy Kats causing him to fall on the ground due to the shockwave. “Targeting correction 0-1-6, 0-1-2, Fire.” Inaho called out again to warn his teammates of his adjustment, but the other team had been alerted to their presence and dispersed to hide behind the buildings on their side. _“They have been alarmed to our presence; we have lost the element of surprise but still outnumber them. They should be in disarray right now meaning…”_ “We need to push, now. Before they can get to calm down and strategize!” Inaho commanded through his comm.

“Already on it!” Maremmano Leader shouted back and prepared to advance forward.

“Inko, you and I need to move up as well.” Inaho told her and commanded her to unequip her Sniper Rifle and loaded her 75 mm Cannon with AP rounds. Following Maremmano’s lead, Inaho and Inko swiftly moved forward to handle the threat in front of them.

* * *

_“A sniper ambush?! My Platoon is in disarray right now, if we do a full on frontal assault then were screwed… I got it!”_ “This is Harbinger Leader to Harbinger Platoon! Load up on HE rounds, and shoot the ground and buildings near the enemy Kataphraktoi! Be prepared, the smoke from the debris is going to block our vision, but it’ll block their vision as well!” Slaine commanded and started to quickly load HE rounds. Turning his Kat slightly around the side of the building he was hiding behind to look for the enemy clearly, Slaine took aim and fired straight down the line. One, Two, Three shots. His vision was completely blurred from what was going on and from the looks of it, his teammates had done the same. _“Good, now we just need to shoot and watch out for our allies using the mini-map.”_ Reloading on AP rounds, Slaine let out a barrage of shots preparing for the enemy to do the same. Without skipping a beat, bullets were coming at him hitting the buildings a ground around him. _“I need to land a hit before they do. Looking at the trajectory of the shots, he should be somewhere around…there!”_ He took a shot and was greeted with the sound of an enemy Kat exploding.

“How is everyone faring right now? I will come and assist those who are in dire need of help!” Slaine called out through his comm.

“This is Harbinger 44 requesting back up!” a voice called back through signaling Slaine to maneuver through the battle grounds toward Harbinger 44.

“I’m on my way!” Slaine responded, “where are you?”

“I am the one engaging on the far right! Hurry, the enemy is closing the gap quickly!”

“Got it!” Slaine started to run with caution, hiding behind buildings to avoid taking fire from the mini battles currently taking place. Swiflty, Slaine had made it to towards the area Harbinger 44 claimed to be. The smoke was thick in the air making it impossible to see on either side; however, Slaine was able to make out a shape in the distance. “Harbinger 44 I have arrived and see someone in the distance, please use some kind of signal to make yourself known to me.” Slaine spoke into the comm. Suddenly, Slaine saw shots fired into the air from close to the enemy Kat signaling that the Kat in front of him was not his ally but that his ally was close. The enemy Kat seemed to notice the shots as well, because he started making movements heading towards the source. The Kat was seemingly getting farther away and closer to Harbinger 44 when it abruptly turned around and shot the ground near Slaine and thickened the smoke causing what little vision he had to disappear. _“He thickened the smoke?! How did he know that I was here? I can’t shoot now either in the off chance that I hit Harbinger instead!”_ “44 Hold your fire!” Slaine shouted. Retreating to hiding behind the building, Slaine listened to the sound of the Kat getting closer, but he also heard a second pair of steps as well. _“The map is showing 44 moving, but what about the enemy Kat? Where is he, and is the second pair of steps his ally or mine?”_ Slaine kept questioning himself. “Cease movement for a minute!” Slaine told Harbinger 44. One of the footsteps stopped telling Slaine that the second one was 44, _“Now where is 44, the map only shows me general locations.”_ He sighed and put up his 75 mm Grenade Launcher. Now pulling out his pistol and knife, Slaine prepared for battling the Kataphrakt heading his way. Hearing the sound inch closer and closer, Slaine tensed and waited knowing that the Kat was now on the other side of the building.

Slowly, Slaine shifted to the side making his way towards the Kat. Surely the Kataphrakt knew that someone was coming, but he would be unsure of who and in which direction. Slaine felt confident that he could take this Kat down and kept inching towards it. _“The smoke is too thick, I’m going to have to get even closer.”_ Finally within sight of the Kat Slaine prepared to shoot, when it turned around and swung at him first. _“What?”_ Slaine dodged and took the shot, but barely missed. _“How did he realize I was here?!”_ Not giving any ground, Slaine charged the enemy Kat which wasn’t prepared for a close combat fight and jabbed his knife into the gut of the Kataphrakt. Just to make sure the deed was done, Slaine raised the pistol towards the head of the Kat and took aim, landing a clear shot, and then he quickly jumped away and ducked due to the damage the explosion would have caused him. _“How did he know where I was?”_ Slaine questioned and looked around. The explosion’s shockwave had cleared some of the smoke and that’s when Slaine saw it. The bright Orange Slepnir who was a slight distance away and had his Sniper Rifle aimed directly towards Slaine. _“It was Orange that pinpointed my location”_ Slaine thought as he looked at the Rifle getting ready to fire, _“I guess my luck ran out.” **RING RING RING**_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aldnoah. Zero is a computer game that is similar to the anime. When entering online mode, the game will randomly select one character to play the role of the Versian Princess. The princess has the power to control the Aldnoah Drive which powers secret weapons such as the Deucalion. The other players are then randomly selected to either be a Terran or Martian. The purpose of the game would be to defeat the boss on that level, the bosses being Noble Kataphraktoi. After defeating the boss, whichever team that has total annihilation loses or whichever side the princess is on wins. The placement of princess, Martian, and Terran is completely random so whenever a player logs in online they will randomly be selected into their role meaning that it isn't certain that they'll always be a Terran or Martian. There are 20 people per team all randomly selected based on the level that is chosen; however, if a person wishes to play with friends then they are allowed to make a group and enter the stage as a group but they may be split up to differing sides. If a person has not beat a certain Boss level then they are not allowed to advance stages.


	6. Keep On Keeping On Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Good hunting, Orange.” Slaine shot and the screen went white indicating the end of the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gosh this turned out longer than I expected. A warning, this chapter was not proofread very well so if you find any mistakes or have any questions then just ask or tell me! I actually ended up enjoying this chapter and having Slaine and Inaho around each other. The characters are so dramatic even though this is a game (x but I think that's why I enjoyed it so much. Back to the HS part of the fic next chapter though! Thanks as always for reading! Sorry for the late update, I've been busy thinking up the concept of another OrangeBat fiction that I want to write!

_“It was Orange that pinpointed my location”_ Slaine thought as he looked at the Rifle getting ready to fire, _“I guess my luck ran out.” **RING RING RING**_.

As if the sudden call and sound of Inaho’s bullet being fired broke him out of his trance, Slaine quickly raised his pistol and fired two shots to throw Inaho’s bullet off trajectory. It was a risky try, but luckily he succeeded in changing the bullets course now causing it to head towards the right. Slaine rushed to hide behind the nearest building to avoid Orange’s next shots. _“I can’t believe I almost accepted defeat at Orange’s hands. Whoever that call was from just saved me, I’ll need to thank them.”_ As though they were reading Slaine’s mind another call came through, and this time he answered ready to thank his benefactor.

“This is Oldenburg Leader, we wouldn’t mind if you come and back us up over here. I mean destroying the other platoon was easy, but it would be okay to have some support when fighting Nilokeras; to ensure victory for the team of course.”

Recognizing the voice, Slaine immediately put his idea of saying thanks out of his mind and briefly collected himself before attempting to respond. _“Easy? Yeah right. It only takes one look at the map to see that you’re in distress. Looks like only you and one more member of your platoon are still intact, but I guess it’s a good thing that you took out the other platoon.”_ A shot suddenly hit the ground right of him with close accuracy. _“Either Orange is getting closer or his aim is getting better. I’m voting for the former though.”_ He sighed and turned his thoughts back to Trillram. “I can’t help you.” _“Some strategic sacrifices are necessary to win.”_

“What was that you punk?!”

 ** _BOOM_** , a shot getting closer to Slaine’s location behind the building. “Like I just said, I can’t help you. I’m already engaged in battle.”

“So you’re just going to let a teammate die?! I am pivotal to your victory you trash!”

  _“Trash huh? Even_ if I was capable of helping him, I wouldn’t.” Slaine’s thought accidently overflowed and he muttered out loud.

“YOU FREAKING JACKA— ” the line abruptly cut cueing Slaine to take a look at the map again. The location where Oldenburg used to stand was now an empty area with only Nilokeras’ icon appearing. _“Looks like Nilokeras took care of that whole area. Two of the Belgian platoon still exists, Lokai 11 and 22 seem to be around, and my whole platoon is still capable. That leaves two platoons on Orange’s side fully functional.”_ **_BOOM_** , yet another shot came through. _“Looks like he isn’t giving up.”_ Slaine sighed and readied himself in case he was about to have a confrontation with Inaho.

“Harbinger Leader, this is Harbinger 22. I have successfully taken out my enemy.”

“Same here!”

“Over here as well.”

 _“If everyone succeeded then how come Orange is still here…? Unless…”_ “Be careful everyone! More enemy Kataphraktoi must be around!” Slaine warned his group. Just then, the building that Slaine was hiding behind collapsed. Quickly moving, Slaine realizes that there is an incoming barrage of shots and hopes that they do minor damage. Luckily, he reaches another building and assesses the damage he took. _“Looks like minor scratches on the frame. Nothing that’ll hinder me from continuing.”_ Looking around the corner to check on Orange’s location, Slaine was relieved to see that he was nowhere in sight. “This is Harbinger Leader to Harbinger Platoon, good job guys. We need to escape this area quickly before backup for the Terrans come. Everyone we’re going to move back towards the right. Avoid going towards the midline of the battlefield, I have a feeling that there will be Terran’s there but we can’t go back to far due to the fact that we may need to assist Belgian or Lokai. Got it?” Slaine asked and prepared to move out keeping his eyes closely peeled for the bright Orange Sleipnir who will stand in his path towards victory.

* * *

Scoping the grounds, Inaho used his thermal vision to locate the other members of Maremmano and Martian Kats. Thermal vision was not a cheap modification, but it had made the gameplay much easier for Inaho when enemies pulled stunts such as covering the field of vision. _“I have eyes on two Kats. One is popping up on my map meaning that he is part of Maremmano, the other is a Martian.”_ “Maremmano, I have eyes on one of you and an enemy Kat. Which one of you is located near the place that an enemy Kat has just fired into the air?”

“This is Maremmano 44, I am the one you have eyes on.”

“I will provide sniper support for you. Your best course of action right now would be to move slightly closer to the location of where the shot was just fired.”

“I got it.”

Watching his ally move forward, Inaho calculated the movements that the enemy Kataphrakt would take. _“Let’s lure him in closer and then thicken the smoke. It’ll provide me with the necessary cover I need as well as block out his vision. Even if Maremmano 44’s vision is blocked out, I will provide him with the proper support from my thermal vision. Necessary risks and sacrifices are needed in battle.”_ “Thicken the smoke. That Martian’s Kataphrakt should still be able to see me if he wanted, if we thicken the smoke then he’ll be taken by surprise.”

“Won’t you have trouble providing sniper support if you can’t see either?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. My Sleipnir is equipped with thermal vision, I will still be able to see all movements from both sides.”

“If you say so.” Turning around, Maremmano fired towards the ground in the general location of the Martian Kat thickening the smoke. “Is this fine?”

 _“Another enemy Kat has approached just now. With the thickened smoke he can’t afford to shoot without worrying that he’ll hit his ally. This makes things easier for us.”_ “If you continue in the direction that you are heading then you should eventually come across the enemy. Stay alert.”

“Yeah yeah, I got it.”

 _“The enemy Kat seems to have retreated behind a building. The other one has also stopped moving, wise choice.”_ “He is behind the building closest to you on your left.” Watching Maremmano 44 inch closer to the original enemy Kataphrakt, Inaho noticed that the Kat was moving in weird a peculiar way. _“The way that it’s moving indicates that they are changing equipment. From the movement of both hands, they probably equipped dual pistols or a pistol and knife. I am going with the latter because the chance of someone wasting money on buying a second pistol is not common. They plan on engaging in close combat, that will be beneficial for me.”_ “The enemy Kat is directly on the other side of the building you are standing at, they are slowly starting to inch towards you from the left. From earlier movements, it would seems that they have equipped a pistol and knife. I would assume that they are trying to engage in close combat because of their lack of vision. They will reach your location in 3..2..1”

Maremmano 44 turned around and swung hoping to make contact with the enemy. Even when he didn’t, they enemy Kat was close enough to see and attack. “Thanks for the hint, but I’ve got this now!” Maremmano 44 told Inaho as he lifted his launcher to attack the Kat that now charged at him. Caught off guard, the Martian Kat stabbed into him and finished the job by blowing his head off with the pistol.

 _“I thought that would be the outcome, like I said necessary sacrifices are needed in battle.”_ Inaho thought and steadied himself to take aim on the enemy Kataphrakt. _“0-0-9, 0-1-2 fire.”_ He shot out expecting to hit his target. Instead, the Kat reacted and shot two bullets with precision and threw his trajectory off. Instead of basking in his success, the Martian Kat went into hiding behind the closest building to him. _“This Kat threw off the trajectory of my bullets precisely and then promptly went back into hiding. This doesn’t seem like the skill a person playing on the Nilokeras field would have. You’ve changed shapes but it looks like I’ve found you…Bat.”_ Since he was already spotted, Inaho decided to get up and move closer to Slaine. As he moved up, he checked his teams status and was slightly surprised to see that Pottok, who was facing Nilokeras and a Martian platoon, was annihilated, as well as only one member other than himself was still standing after their encounter with this Martian platoon. _“The Kat other than myself is standing slightly behind the frontlines. It looks like it’s main job is providing support, so that must be Inko. I will give Bat’s team the benefit of the doubt and assume that they lost no members in this skirmish.” **BOOM**_ , Inaho fired a shot towards the building that Slaine was now hiding behind. _“I will have to retreat soon before his back up gets here.” **BOOM**_ , he fired again. _“This is getting nowhere, I am practically just wasting bullets.”_ Inaho looked up at the building that Slaine was hiding behind and aimed his rifle at the building. _“Since I’ve appeared before him, he will think that Maremmano has backup and will act carefully giving me and Inko enough time to retreat.” **BOOM**_ , Inaho fired at the building causing it to collapse. Quickly, turning back he ran until he was out of Slaine’s range of sight.

“Inko we’re retreating.”

“Inaho! Thank goodness, it seems that Maremmano got wiped out.”

“I realize this. We don’t have time to stay here. Let’s regroup with Calm and Eddelrittuo and see if they’ve found anything interesting.” Inaho said as he looked at the map to find out Calm and Eddelrittuo’s position. _“They’ve stayed close to the school. That’s good considering all the fighting that’s been going on, but I doubt anything will be so close to a Terran or Martian spawn station.”_ Inaho sighed and regrouped with Inko to head back towards the school area.

* * *

_“Okay, let’s assess our losses for now. I’ve lost two members of my platoon, an arm, and we only have two members left of our air platoon.”_ Rayet sighed coming to the conclusion that they lost more assets than they should have. _“Slaine said something about the princess being off the frontlines. That means not only does Inaho’s side have the princess, but that he has a plan for them; however, I have a feeling that he hasn’t told anyone else about the princess because of the chance of defecting. That will work for us.”_ Continuing to move forward, Rayet checked the map and realized that not only was Oldenburg platoon gone, but Nilokeras was also on the move. _“So he was all bark and no bite.”_ She snickered at the thought of that overbearing Trillram roaring over his loss.

“I have eyes on something, it looks like two enemy Kataphraktoi.” Mizusaki said through the comm link, breaking Rayet’s chain of thoughts.

“How far ahead of us?”

“If we keep moving at this pace then we will encounter them in about a minute.”

_“It’s only two, even with my missing arm we should be able to take them.”_

“I got it, we will launch a surprise attack, however there is something suspicious about these two being in the back instead of providing support on the frontlines. We will not destroy either of them until we are sure of their status.”

“What should we do?” Orlane asked.

“You and Mizusaki are to stand by and provide support if plans fall through. If we let you guys go shooting in there prior, then you might accidently destroy one of the Kataphraktoi.” Rayet answered and equipped her pistol in her remaining good arm.

Stealthily moving, Rayet and Belgian 33 made it to where the two Terran Kataphraktoi were using Mizusaki and Orlane as guides. _“Both of them seem to be in high alert right now. Looks like we’ll have to attack and determine who is who.”_ “Belgian 33, it looks like we’ll have to 1v1.”

“Way ahead of you!” Belgian 33 responded and charged out releasing a spray of AP rounds.

“YOU IDIOT!” Rayet shouted and jumped out to provide as much support as she could. The two Kataphraktoi, now aware of their existence, returned fire after taking minor damage; however only one of the Kats stayed pushed forward. “WE NEED TO PULL BACK NOW AND ALLOW AIR SUPPORT TO COME IN!” Rayet’s shouted her warning but it came too late and Belgian 33 took a fatal blow but not without Rayet shooting the Terran Kat in front to oblivion. Now rushing, she charged the last Kat and used the force of her Kat to push it to the ground before sitting up and raising her pistol at its head. Putting a call through, Rayet decided she wanted to negotiate with whoever piloting the Kat under her.

“Damn it, you throw me on the ground and then want to talk to me?!” A familiar voice questioned angrily.

“Calm is that you?” Rayet asked back perplexed by the chances of meeting Calm and him being the one that she was looking for.

“Rayet?! Is that you?!”

“Obviously, now then” Rayet moved her pistol closer to where Calm’s head was, “what are you doing back here instead of on the frontlines?”

“Um, that is…uh, Inaho told us to stay back here and defend the base!”

 _“Wow his lying skills are the only thing worse than his piloting.”_ Rayet sighed, “Are you sure the Ohime-sama isn’t hiding and looking for secret goodies?” Calm could practically hear the smirk in Rayet’s voice.

“O-Ohime-sama?! Don’t kid me, I’m a freaking prince!”

“…”

“Shit, I didn’t just say that!”

“Calm, I will give you two options. How about you swear fealty to our side so that we win, or I blow your head off? I would really hate to do the latter seeing as were friends and you’re the only one of us who hasn’t passed the Nilokeras level but~” Rayet teased, but moved the placed the pistol on the back of his Kat’s head and moved her finger to the trigger.

“Damn it Rayet, that’s playing dirty” he sighed, “fine, I’ll swear fealty.” Calm said and pulled up a screen that only the “princess” character has indicating that he was now switching sides from Terran to Martian.

Rayet checked her map and sure enough, it now showed that Calm was an ally; however, she didn’t move. “I will stay like this for now. Our help isn’t required anywhere and I have no idea if you’ll switch over if we pose the threat of annihilation.”

“You’re one cruel friend, you know?”

“Shall I blow you to oblivion?” Rayet laughed but pulled her pistol back.

“Belgian Leader” A voice came through the comm, “Our assistance is required on the other side of the map by Harbinger Leader, so we will be heading out!” Orlane said.

“Good Hunting, Lokai.”

* * *

Hiding behind the nearest building, Slaine slightly turned the corner to scout how many enemies that they were now about to face. _“I should have known that one more platoon would have been stationed out here. There are 4 of them meaning Orange and his buddy didn’t come this way. I’ll call for air support for now, we can’t take any more damage if we want to still have a chance of beating Nilokeras.”_ Collecting his thoughts, Slaine put a call through to Lokai.

“Ah hello, this is Harbinger Leader. We are requesting you come this way to help us out. They still have a full platoon that hasn’t faced battle yet.”

“This is Lokai, we have heard your request and are on our way now.”

“Thanks.” Slaine hung up and went to inform his platoon. “This is Harbinger Leader to Harbinger Platoon. We will have air assistance while combatting this next platoon. From looking at my own stock, I will assume that everyone else is running dangerously low on ammo?”

A series of yes’s answered Slaine’s question. _“This is going to be a pain. I doubt that we will come out of this unscathed. We don’t even have the ammunition to set up a smoke field.”_ Flying overhead came the two Lokai members who joined in on Slaine’s platoon chat.

“Harbinger, Lokai 22 and I only have 4 and 7 Howitzer shots remaining.”

“All of us are also low on ammunition. A frontal assault isn’t going to work, but we also can’t afford a surprise attack because of the way they are positioned. They are bound to notice us before we can fire.” Slaine sighed still trying to come up with any possible way to beat them.

“Lokai 11 and I have come up with a plan, but you have to promise us that you’ll win.” Mizusaki’s voice rang through the comm.

“Of course, but what is the plan?” Slaine answered back with confidence.

“It’s going to be a frontal assault. I need two of the on ground Kats to give up their remaining ammunition to the other two and prepare to act as distractions and charge the group.”

After a brief silence, someone spoke up. “This is Harbinger 44, i’ll do it. This isn’t even a Kat I own anyways.” The voice said and transferred his remaining ammunition to Slaine.

“If that’s your reason then this is Harbinger 22, and I’m in too!” The next voice said without a moments delay and turned to transfer whatever he had left on him to Harbinger 33.

“Are you guys sure that this is the only way?” Slaine questioned.

“I don’t see anyone else coming up with plans.” Orlane replied back.

“If you guys must.” Slaine conceded.

“All you have to do is win for the rest of us!” Mizusaki said cheerfully. “On my command! 3..2..1!”

Harbinger 22 and 44 shot out running towards the Terran platoon. Almost next to them, the platoon noticed and opened fire. Just then Orlane and Mizusaki went flying in firing their Howitzer shots. **_BOOM BOOM_** then sound followed Harbinger 22 and one of the Terran Kats blowing up. **_BOOM_**   Harbinger 44 went out next, followed by another Terran Kataphrakt being blasted full of bullet holes by the two sky carriers. Suddenly the shots from Lokai 11 and 22 stopped as they avoided fire from the 2 remaining Kats.

“I’m out!” Orlane shouted

“Me too.” Mizusaki said.

“We’ll be there to back you up!” Slaine cut into the conversation as prepped to move out.

“Stay out of this! We can’t afford losing either of you.” Orlane called back. “Lokai 22, you know what we have to do.”

“Of course, Harbinger promised he would win for us anyways~” Mizusaki taunted.

“I’ll take the one on the left.” Orlane told Mizusaki.

“No problem, good hunting Lokai 11.”

“Good hunting Lokai 22.”

Both of the sky carriers abruptly took a nose dive, and pulled their aircrafts back up in the line of the enemy Kats. Dodging the bullets that still headed there way, Lokai 11’s wing took a small hit but she continued onward. With no distance left, the two Terran Kataphraktoi were left at the mercy of Lokai’s kamikaze attack. **_BOOM_** the sound rang through as both sky carriers disappeared off the map.

Slaine checked the map again to see the remaining members left on his side. _“There are two people in the upperleft corner of the map where the school would be, that must be Rayet and a member from her platoon. So only four of us left including Harbinger 33 and I. Orange must be out of members too though. Looks like this will be a tough Nilokeras battle.”_ While Slaine was assessing all the remaining Martians, Nilokeras was in the same spot for a while now, and Slaine decided that this would be the best time to approach it. Calling Rayet for back up, Slaine and Harbinger 33 started to move forward.

“Rayet, no Belgian Leader, this is Harbinger Leader. We are about to engage Nilokeras and your assistance would be helpful.”

“Hmm, no need to be a stick in the mud Slaine Troyard. You can address me by my name, but I can’t assist you. See, I happened to come across the princess or prince in this case,” Rayet snickered before continuing, “If we happen to face annihilation after defeating Nilokeras then we have the princess as our safety measure to ensure victory. If he suddenly tries to switch back to the Terran side, then I will blast his Kat full of holes. He can’t have that or he’ll be stuck on this level again, so he has no choice but to stick with us. Also, I have lost an arm so I wouldn’t be that helpful anyways.”

“You found the princess character? That’s good, looks like we’ll have to continue on without you. However, we should put that character to use. Have them switch back to the Terran side briefly to report how many of them are left. If he tries to anything funny then shoot him on the spot.”

“Alright!” Rayet cheered and turned her attention back to Calm.

“Transfer back to being a Terran, and report to me how many of them are left. If you go silent for too long then I will assume you are contacting Inaho for help, if you do not switch back immediately after you tell me the number then I will shoot, and if you tell us a false number then I’ll shoot.”

“You really are a cruel friend.” Calm grumbled but followed directions turning back into a Terran. “You do realize that I will appear on Inaho’s map don’t you?”

“Once you switch back he will either think that you have been killed or have turned traitorous. Now tell me the number before I follow through with the former.”

“Geez Rayet. You have no sympathy.” Calm sighed, “There are two left, I am going to assume that it is Inaho and Inko. It seems like they are currently engaged with Nilokeras right now…”

“Switch back.”

“Yeah yeah, I got it.” Calm complied and switched back before Rayet got trigger happy.

“Slaine, this is Rayet. Two of them are left, Inaho and Inko, and they are currently fighting Nilokeras.”

“Thanks, Rayet.” Slaine answered and hung up the call.

“Harbinger 33, we will be reaching Nilokeras and the two remaining members of the Terran side soon.”

“Let’s do this thang!”

* * *

“Inaho, are we heading back towards Calm?”

“Yeah, I have a bad feeling about what’s going on back there.”

“INAHO, LOOK OUT!” Inko yelled and used her grappling hook to pull Inaho back.

Suddenly, Nilokeras dropped from the sky landing squarely where Inaho would have been. _“Nilokeras? His character pattern always goes towards the most condensed area.”_ Inaho thought and scanned his map, shocked by what he saw. _“I see why he would approach this direction. We must’ve taken too much time checking our weaponry and damage. Calm has sworn fealty so we have no problem with him right now. However, Harroway is fighting a losing battle. Ah, the last of them just went.”_

“Inaho, I can’t keep dragging you!” Inko cut into his thoughts, and he realized that while he was thinking, Inko was dragging him away from Nilokeras.

Inaho checked the map again to see that Harroway was completely decimated. _“Looks like it’ll be Inko and I taking on Nilokeras. Luckily, we both have fought him before and know his weakness.”_ “Inko, unhook me. We will take on Nilokeras ourselves. Now then, load up on all the HE rounds you have left and we will find his weakspot.”

 ** _BOOM_** a flash and explosion hit the left side of Nilokeras. _“Looks like we’ll have experienced company.”_  Inaho thought and watched the flames get sucked in. _“His weakness is not on his right arm.”_ Inaho looked up and saw two Martian Kataphraktoi.

 _“So it IS Orange fighting over here.”_ Slaine thought.

“Harbinger 33, we will continue to fire HE rounds until we notice a location where the flames and smoke do not get sucked in by the dimensional barrier.”

“We don’t have enough ammunition to blindly shoot!” Harbinger responded with worry in his voice.

“Don’t mind it, those two Terran Kataphraktoi will be doing the same. Just watch their shots as well.”

“Well then, lets do this Harbinger Leader!”

_“Orange will most likely pull battle stunts while we are fighting. I can’t afford to let my guard down near him.”_

_“Bat, no he isn’t a bat right now, will most likely be very cautious of me seeing as he has been in many fights and is lacking ammunition.”_

“Fire!” Inko called out and shot the front of Nilokeras’s left leg.

“Fire!” Harbinger shouted shooting the back of Nilokeras’s left leg.

The fire and smoke was completely absorbed on both sides indicating that his weakness was not on his left leg, nor his left torso. Inaho and Slaine followed suit and both shot the right leg, however the smoke and fire was absorbed at an equal rate as the right leg. _“There are only 4 places we can check now. His front, his back, and his two arms. Now would be a good time to land an attack.”_ Inaho calculated and took a knee to see the gap beneath Nilokeras’s legs. _“Fire.”_

Watching Inaho prep for his shot, Slaine envisioned his line of fire. _“He is aiming between Nilokeras’s legs? That is…dang it!”_ Slaine turned his sights to Harbinger 33 who was directly in Inaho’s path. “MOVE 33!” **_BOOM_** , his warning came too late as Inaho’s shot made contact with Harbinger 33. _“That freaking Orange!... wait, the smoke from the explosion isn’t being absorbed under Nilokeras’s right shoulder blade. I found it!”_

 _“It was more efficient to cause a mass explosion that will cover the whole back area and arms. Judging from Bat’s movements, the chink in the armor must be on the back.”_ Inaho got up and switched his HE rounds for AP. “Inko, the weakness is on the back.” He said and started making his way around.

 _“Orange is coming this way. I don’t know if I should take this chance to charge Nilokeras and break through his armor or if I should attempt to stall here with Orange or…”_ Slaine watched as the two Terran Kataphraktoi slowly started to make their way around towards the back of Nilokeras. Looking back towards Nilokeras, he ducked as Nilokeras decided to take a swing at him just then. _“What annoying movements.”_ Slaine thought, Nilokeras then turned and charged towards Inaho and Inko. In the spur of the moment, Inaho launched two of his grappling hooks connecting to Inko and Slaine. Retracting the length of the hook he used to hook to Slaine, he propelled Inko and himself closer to Slaine. _“What the heck, Orange!”_ Slaine reacted as quickly as he could and aimed one of his shots towards the two Kats coming towards him. Inaho disengaged his hook and used his thrusters to quickly get out of Slaine’s range of fire; however Inko’s Kat got hit and lost both legs by the impact of the HE round.

“Sorry Inko. At least you're still alive.” Inaho said as he glided towards the side of Nilokeras.

“INAHOOO!” Inko shouted.

 _“Orange got away, I also ran out of bullets with that last shot. I’ll have to wait for Orange to take Nilokeras out.”_ Slaine thought and watched Inaho.

As if Inaho knew Slaine’s predicament, he slid around towards the back of Nilokeras. Not wanting to prolong the battle further, Inaho stabbed into Nilokeras’s weakspot and then shoved his Launcher in sending in a hail of AP rounds. Realizing that enough was enough, Inaho moved back and watch as Nilokeras exploded.

“Inaho, not wanting to break your little success but I’m in a bit of a pinch.” Inko called out prompting Inaho to turn around. Slaine had gone towards Inko during Inaho’s skirmish with Nilokeras and had placed his pistol to her head. Inaho lifted and pointed his Launcher at Slaine not fazed by the events that were currently unfolding.

 _“What is Orange planning?”_ Slaine put his finger on the trigger waiting to see what Inaho had planned.

“Now.”

* * *

“Now.” The sound of Inaho’s voice came through Calm’s headset. Kickstarting his thrusters, he quickly raised himself up and gave Rayet no time to react. As soon as he was up, he shot her other are off and pushed her Kat onto the ground. Now using his foot to keep her down, Calm pointed his Launcher at her.

“What?!” Rayet shouted into her comm link, shocked by the sudden turn of events.

“Ah, your shocked why I got up right? To be honest, I was in a separate call with Inaho this whole time. He planned that something like this would happen and told me that he’ll give me the signal on when I should start my counter attack.” Calm boasted at his sudden dominance. “Anyways, I should change back to being a Terran now and claim victory.” Calm said as he switched back from Martian to Terran.

“Hmm, I shouldn’t have underestimated you Calm.” Rayet sighed as Calm accepted the victory claims for the Terrans.

* * *

**_RING RING_** a call came through for Slaine, and he automatically knew who it would be. Answering it, he put his best spiteful voice out. “What do you want, Orange?”

“That was a good battle. You’re a very worthy opponent.”

“Quit the formalities, what are you trying to say?” Slaine spit out.

“Look at the map.”

Slaine looked and noticed that only one icon appeared where Rayet and the “princess” were supposed to be. _“Ah, I see. My luck really did run out huh? This guy is one damn good strategist.”_ Slaine raised his pistol from Inko and pointed it towards Inaho. “Good hunting, Orange.” Slaine shot and the screen went white indicating the end of the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aldnoah. Zero is a computer game that is similar to the anime. When entering online mode, the game will randomly select one character to play the role of the Versian Princess. The princess has the power to control the Aldnoah Drive which powers secret weapons such as the Deucalion. The other players are then randomly selected to either be a Terran or Martian. The purpose of the game would be to defeat the boss on that level, the bosses being Noble Kataphraktoi. After defeating the boss, whichever team that has total annihilation loses or whichever side the princess is on wins. The placement of princess, Martian, and Terran is completely random so whenever a player logs in online they will randomly be selected into their role meaning that it isn't certain that they'll always be a Terran or Martian. There are 20 people per team all randomly selected based on the level that is chosen; however, if a person wishes to play with friends then they are allowed to make a group and enter the stage as a group but they may be split up to differing sides. If a person has not beat a certain Boss level then they are not allowed to advance stages.


	7. Re-do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Inaho is doing it too? This might be more fun than I thought.”_ Slaine mused to himself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late release! I have been super busy as of late, which is weird because I was expecting to have a lot more free time since my summer started. I enjoyed writing this chapter, but I may have butchered the character development with Slaine some so bear with me please! Thanks for reading this chapter, and please be aware that I self-edit so I may not catch everything! It would be great if any of y'all commented problems or ways that this story could go!

GAME OVER, the red screen flashed and read once again after a game with Orange. Slaine looked at the computer with contempt but there was another feeling. He had honestly enjoyed himself during that game, sure it was hard and he lost, but fighting a fair fight with someone of such skill brought a thrill that Slaine couldn’t really express with words. No one has ever made him strategize to that extent or pushed his team to the brink of annihilation except Orange. Slightly lost in his thoughts and feelings on the last game a sudden ping popped up on his computer and alerted him that someone was trying to message him. Already knowing who it was, Slaine opened the messenger and read the brief question.

“Bat, do you remember the terms of our bet on that last game?” Slaine read in the monotonous voice of Inaho with slight disdain from his loss. Despite not knowing him long, Slaine had hoped to wipe that stoic look off of Inaho’s face when he made his condition for the bet. _“Even if I won and he did apologize to me like requested I imagine it would be with the same face he always wears.”_ Slaine thought and chuckled to himself while he typed back to Inaho.

“Of course Orange, did you already have something in mind?” Slaine replied.

“I have, it is quite a simple task.” Inaho typed back with such speed, it was almost as if he predicted what Slaine would ask.

“And that is?”

“Meet me at the train station by 7:40 tomorrow morning.”

“And why would I do that? If I remember correctly which I do, you happened to leave the absolute worst first or should I say second impression of anyone I’ve ever met. Plus, I’m heading to the school with Asseylum.” Slaine felt frustrated again remembering the events that had happened earlier in the day. _“What is he getting at?”_

“This is my request from winning the bet. I am will take it as you trying to back out then?”

“I’m not backing out. I’ll send Asseylum a text right now telling her that I will be accompanying you tomorrow morning then. Final question though, won’t we be late if we board the 7:50 train?”

“It will only be your second day. No one will expect you to be on-time, especially with your lack of knowledge on where the school is.”

 _“Wow, I can’t tell if he is personally trying to get under my skin or is just naturally inept with his words.”_ Slaine sighed reading Inaho’s message. _“Doesn’t look like he’ll explain to me what he is planning either so it looks like I have to go along with him.”_ “I got it. 7:40 it is then.” Slaine finally answered pushing his thoughts and curiosity to the back of his mind.

“I will see you at 7:40.” Inaho replied and for a brief moment, the messenger showed that he was still typing. After a bit, his final message came. “Goodnight, Bat.”

 _“Was he seriously contemplating whether to type me goodnight?”_ Slaine mentally questioned once he saw the message. _“That’s actually kind of adorable… wait, I did not just think that about him. He is my mortal enemy for now.”_ Slaine continued to think not noticing the small smile that appeared on his face. “ Yeah see you in the morning. Goodnight Orange.”Slaine finally typed back somewhat shocked by the lack of disdain he was now feeling for the younger brunet. “ _Maybe he isn’t so bad.”_ He mused to himself as he watched Inaho’s chat go offline. _“This is still the same apathetic guy I met earlier, it’ll take a lot more to overwrite those first two impression than that Orange!”_ Slaine was telling himself, noticing that his feelings from this morning were starting to fade. _“Oh yeah, Asseylum.”_ Slaine remembered and went to pick up his phone before calling her. After dialing her number and letting it ring for a bit, the same gentle voice that Slaine had been used to hearing throughout his childhood answered the phone.

“Hello? Slaine are you there?” The voice chimed through, graceful as always.

“Hi, Asseylum.” Slaine replied with a moderately bashful voice. Asseylum had always had a special place in his heart being his childhood friend and Slaine had once mixed that up with feelings of love. Those thoughts were over now, but occasionally he would feel nervous or sheepish around her.

“Did you need something?” She asked with concern in her voice. Asseylum had always tried to watch out for him, which used to confuse him about her feelings but Slaine realized that she is just a very caring friend.

“Ah, um, I just wanted to say that you can go on ahead of me tomorrow…” his voice started to trail off towards the end.

“Why, do you not want to go with me?” There it went again. The overbearing amount of worry she had in her voice almost made Slaine’s will to meet up with Inaho in the morning waiver.

“That’s not it!” Slaine exclaimed before Asseylum would try to bear any type of burden. “It’s just that I made an agreement to Oran-, no Kaizuka that we would meet at the station in the morning and I wouldn’t want you to be late because of me!”

“…” Asseylum was silent for a bit as if she was contemplating whether she actually thought it would be a good idea for Slaine and Inaho to meet up so soon after their recent bouts earlier that morning. She blew out a breath and continued on, “are you sure that’s okay? I really do want you to be friends with Inaho-san but if you guys aren’t comfortable with each other then I don’t think it’ll be a good idea.”

“It will be fine! We are both high schoolers, we know how to be civil.” Slaine reassured her hoping she wouldn’t push as to why they suddenly made this agreement to meet in the morning. Due to her nature, she would probably be disappointed if she knew the boys were betting things like apologies and requests on bets.

“I understand, Slaine! It will be great if you guys could be close friends!” Asseylum’s voice sounded cheery which allowed Slaine a sigh of relief. “It’s getting a bit late so I am going to go to sleep. Goodnight Slaine!”

“Goodnight Asseylum.” Slaine responded and hung the phone up. After hanging the phone up, Slaine went to the restroom to go and prepare for bed. Whilst looking into the mirror Slaine’s thoughts recalled all of the events from earlier, _“beautiful.”_ Slaine could see his face flushing in the mirror and decided that it was time to go to bed. _“He wasn’t talking about me, he wasn’t talking about me. Why does that thought keep popping up in my head?!”_ Slaine groaned and threw his pillow onto his face. Soon after, he was fast asleep wondering about how tomorrow would turn out.

* * *

This time Inaho was prepared for what would come the next day. After getting off of Aldnoah. Zero, he went to Yuki-nee and informed her of his plans for the morning. “Yuki-nee, I am going to take the subway tomorrow morning.”

 “You want to take the subway? I see no problem with it!” She called out enthusiastically, mainly about the fact that he would be getting exercise by walking those 10 minutes to school. “What is with the sudden want to walk, I mean take the subway though?”

“I am not taking it so that I can exercise if that is what you are hoping. I am meeting up with Slaine Troyard in the morning.” He calmly replied as if he read her mind on his motives.

Now that shocked Yuki. “Slaine Troyard!” She practically yelled out remembering the tension that had overtaken the air when they confronted and learned each other’s identity in the staff office. “Why are you meeting with him?” she questioned carefully.

“I have something that I must do.” Inaho answered without changing expressions.

 _“He has something that he must do?! What is Nao planning?!”_ Yuki-nee’s thoughts started running rampant as an entourage of questions bombarded her mind. Sensing her distress, Inaho clarified his purpose a little more.

“I want to fix any animosity that may be between us.”

If Yuki was shocked by the fact that Inaho was going to meet Slaine Troyard in the morning, then the feeling she felt after hearing Nao say he wants to clear animosity stupefied her. _“Nao wants to go out of his way to fix their relationship? This is still my little brother Nao right? The one whose emotions and social skills are scarce. Wow, I have to say that I’m impressed Slaine Troyard.”_ “I don’t see any problems then.”

“I will still wake up and prepare our breakfast for tomorrow morning. I do not wish you to starve throughout the day, nor do I want any unnecessary spending of money on bread.”

“I got it, Nao~” Yuki-nee whined teasingly at her brother.

“I will now turn in for the night then. Goodnight, Yuki-nee.” Inaho said and heard his sister return a goodnight of her own while he headed towards to the bathroom to get ready to sleep. He finished his preparations are laid in bed, thoughts taken by a certain blond. _“ I wonder why I felt so inclined to tell him goodnight. It’s not like our relationship is close enough for us to interact on that kind of a personal level yet. However, it is common courtesy to tell someone goodnight if you are ending your conversation with them at night. Therefore, I shouldn’t overthink this.”_ Inaho sighed and, like clockwork, fell asleep within minutes.

The next morning Inaho woke up at 6:30 and followed his daily routine of waking up Yuki and then proceeding to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and a bento for the both of them. “Goodmorning Yuki-nee” he called out to his sister as she lethargically dragged herself to the table and yawned with a wide open mouth

“Morning Nao” she yawned again and watched her brother make his most favored omelet rolls. “Do you still plan on meeting up with Slaine Troyard today?”

Turning back with an omelet to feed his sister, Inaho answered, “I have not changed my mind on this meeting.” Giving his sister the omelet and turning back around to finish cooking after seeing Yuki’s satisfied face, Inaho closed the lids to their bentos and placed their plates at the table. The time was now 7:00 and Inaho started to clean the dishes while Yuki-nee got ready for school.

At 7:20 Yuki-nee ran out of the door and shouted, “Nao, I’ll see you later!”

At 7:25 Inaho started to prepare for school and promptly left his apartment at 7:35. _“I’ll be at the station in 5 minutes. Hopefully, Bat will keep his appointment as well… hopefully? Why am I hopeful for this meeting? Clearing any misgivings between us will be pleasant, but it is not like it is needed.”_ Inaho arrived at the station while he was still pondering over his “hope” that Slaine would still show up. Looking around, Inaho’s eyes skimmed the platform until he stopped his gaze on a boy slightly taller than himself and whose blond hair danced gracefully in the small breeze blowing.  Briefly captivated by the boy, Inaho’s phone vibrated indicating that his alarm entitled “Meeting time with Bat” was set off, bring him back to reality. Rushing towards Slaine, Inaho was momentarily stunned when the boy turned around and glared at him for a moment before relaxing his face.

“Orange, you made it just on time. Here I thought you were going to stand me up.” The words came out bluntly.

“I had no intentions to do so.” Inaho replied remembering his thoughts from the previous night. _“He showed up early. I wonder if he was looking forward to this meeting as well.”_

“Oi Orange now that I’m here, what are we doing?” Slaine questioned, his curiosity becoming more and more apparent as he looked around the station before making eye contact with Inaho.

Not answering the question, Inaho looked at his phone until it showed 7:45 and right on time the train came. Grabbing Slaine’s arm and dragging him in, Inaho looked around and found a few open seats walking straight over and sitting. Slaine stood there slightly dumbfounded until Inaho pointed at the seat next to him and beckoned Slaine to sit. Still confused, Slaine took the seat and turned towards Inaho.

“Orange, seriously what is going on?”

Inaho took a breath and turned towards Slaine answering his question. “A redo.”

“…a redo?” Slaine’s confusion only grew with the new answer.

“Yes, I will be starting now since we only have a 10 minute ride from here to the next station.”

“Ah, um go ahead?” _“Seriously what is Orange planning?”_ Slaine thought to himself and watched as Inaho seemed to make a small mental list in his head before starting whatever it is that he wanted to request of Slaine.

“My name is Kaizuka Inaho, I am a first-year in class 1-E at UFE academy. I do not know if you are aware yet, but classes D and E for every year are university prep courses while A, B, and C are general studies courses until you reach your third-year. I am also an avid player of Aldnoah. Zero and am known for piloting an Orange Sleipnir whenever I am assigned to play on a Terran team. It is nice to make your acquaintance.” Inaho finished with a slight bow to Slaine before looking up and staring at him.

 _“Is this what he meant by a redo?! He wants to completely start over our first-impressions!”_ Slaine could feel himself smile while he held back a chuckle. _“All right Orange, I’ll go along for now.”_ Slaine took a breath and refocused, trying not to laugh at Inaho’s seriousness of the situation. “I am Slaine Troyard, I recently moved back to Japan due to some issues within my family. I am a second-year in class 2-D at UFE academy as well as a childhood friend to Asseylum, who you know. I was not aware of the fact that D and E were preparatory classes, but since I do plan on going to college, I will not question my placement in that class. Thank you for informing me though. I also am an avid player of Aldoah. Zero and commonly pilot a Sky Carrier, however I am still buying modifications for my newest one since my last one was destroyed. Nice to make your acquaintance Kaizuka Inaho.” Slaine finished with a smile, purposely throwing in his comment on his Sky Carrier to see Inaho’s reaction. Inaho’s face didn’t so much as twitch from the comment Slaine threw out, but still managed to make Slaine smile. _“His face won’t change even when challenged. He may actually prove to be an amusing person.”_  He mused to himself.

Checking his phone, Inaho noticed the time was 7:54 meaning they only had 6 minutes before the train would make it to their stop. “Now that our introductions are out of the way, shall we ask each other some questions to familiarize ourselves with each other?”

Slaine was now holding back a full on laughter because of the sincerity the other boy was now starting to show. _“This guy is being so serious about this! I can kind of see why Asseylum said he has his cute sides, I am starting to see it.”_ Slaine caught himself and started to blush, _“wait, I did not just call him cute!”_ Slaine looked up and saw Inaho staring at him.

“Is something wrong, do you not like being questioned?” _“His face is flushed. He seems to be in perfect health, so he must either be angry or embarrassed. Have I made him angry somehow?”_ “I do not have to ask you questions if that makes you uncomfortable.” Inaho continued on watching Slaine.

“No, that’s not it!” Slaine exclaimed, “I just thought of something strange!” _“I can never let him know that he being cute crossed my mind.”_

“I will start then, what is your favorite color?” Inaho inquired.

“Hmm, I don’t really know. I am aware that my least favorite color is orange though.” Slaine grinned teasingly at Inaho during his answer. “My turn, what is your favorite food?”

“Omelets, especially if I make them.” Inaho answered.

“Oh that must mean you’re either a good cook or just conceited in your taste.” Slaine replied back, “either way, I’ll keep that in mind for now.”

“Are you a morning or night person and why?” Inaho went on to asking.

“Morning, it’s a refreshing time and I feel like I can get a lot accomplished then. Which do you prefer sweet or salty?”

“I prefer sweeter things.” Inaho answered bringing out laughter from Slaine.

“You prefer sweet things?! Hard to tell from how you look.” Slaine continued to laugh.

“Then I will ask you the same. Do you like sweet or salty foods?”

“If I had to choose between the two then salty, however I like my beverages bitter.”

 _“Salty and bitter, I’ll remember those.”_ Inaho filed that bit of information away in his memory and looked at the window realizing that the train was coming to a stop. “Slaine this is our stop, make sure to engrave it in your memory so that you won’t miss it.”

“Hm, all right Kaizuka.” Slaine started saying as he stood up.

“Inaho.”

“What?” Slaine turned to face Inaho who was now standing and heading towards the door.

“You can just call me Inaho.”

“Ah then just call me Slaine! Not like you haven’t already.” He answered and rushed past Inaho to exit the train first. “What’s your favorite type of music?” Slaine turned and faced Inaho.

“I don’t really listen to music.” Inaho answered and motioned to Slaine to follow him. They exited the platform and continued to ask each other random questions. Occasionally Inaho would point to the surrounding buildings to give a little input on each such as the flower shop that stood at the base of the hill, a conbini, a café, a stationary store, and a park with crepe and ice cream stands. Slaine listened intently and thought how different this was from the Inaho he first met. _“Even when we first met, I didn’t intend for him to talk about himself or give me a tour of the area. He is trying really hard right now isn’t he?”_ Slaine found himself smiling again. He noticed he had been doing that since they reintroduced themselves on the train and blamed it on the shock from the character gap he was seeing from Inaho. While Slaine was still temporarily lost in his thoughts, Inaho asked him to wait for a minute and briskly walked towards a vending machine that was a little further up. He returned with a black coffee and yogurt, promptly handing the coffee over to Slaine who was stunned by this act.

“You said you liked your beverages bitter, right?” Inaho asked, seemingly anxious to see whether Slaine would appreciate the act or not.

“Ah, um, I did.” Slaine answered sheepishly and took the drink, not making eye contact with Inaho. “Thank you.” His voice slightly trailed off. _“This guy! Is a character gap even allowed to be this big?!”_ Slaine internally questioned, but was brought back to his senses by the bell from their school resounding.

“We’re running Bat!” Inaho turned towards the school and started to take off, Slaine following suit and also starting to run to soon surpassing him.

“You’re not a big fan of exercise right? I remember you saying so when I asked closer towards the base of the hill!”

“A light jog like this isn’t enough to tire me.” Inaho responded, trying not to sound as if he was going to run out of breath soon.

“Let’s make another bet on this then, shall we?” Slaine yelled out his question and started to pull even more ahead. “First one to make it to the gates win! If I win then you let me try your cooking sometime, and if you win then I’ll make you something although I’m not very good.” Looking behind him, he could see Inaho starting to catch up

“I don’t see why not.” Inaho agreed to the bet and pulled up next to Slaine. The two ran side by side until they could see the gates of the school. Of course they were closed for the moment, so that any late students would be unable to get in at the time but the wall and gate wasn’t very tall. Once the gates were only a few feet away, Slaine pushed himself and pulled ahead with Inaho not too far behind.

“I made it first Orange!” Slaine slammed his hand on the gate and waited for Inaho, while he caught his breath.

“I can see that, Bat. As aforementioned, I will cook for you sometime but for now we need to climb this wall and get to class. Follow me.” Inaho said and started moving towards the back of the school, that way none of the patrolling teachers out front would catch them. “Here we are.” He said as he reached a suitable spot to jump over. Throwing his bag over the wall, Inaho pulled himself up before reaching down towards Slaine.

“I can make it over just fine on my own, Orange.” Slaine said when he saw the hand extended towards him.

“I didn’t doubt you. I am offering to take your bag so you wouldn’t have to throw it over, in the chance it had anything valuable in it.” Inaho responded and grabbed the bag that was almost shoved into his hands.

“I knew that.” Slaine mumbled and pulled himself over.

 _“I know I have said this before, but his emotions clearly show on his face.”_ Inaho sighed and jumped down to the ground. _“This is somewhat amusing though, seeing all of his emotions.”_ “You asked the last question, challenging me to a bet. So I will be asking a question now.” Inaho said while handing Slaine his bag and picking his own up.

“Go ahead.” Slaine replied starting to walk towards the front, while making sure that there was no teacher.

“What is your favorite animal?” Inaho asked standing behind Slaine who signaled him that a teacher was about to move from the front gates towards the other side of the school.

“Hmm, I would say birds. I envy their ability to fly freely throughout the sky.” Slaine answered before signing that the teacher was now out of vicinity. “What about you?”

“If I said bats then how would you react?” Inaho looked at Slaine who was now starting to redden once again before walking forward and towards the front door.

“Orange!” Slaine exclaimed and followed him. After exchanging their outdoor shoes for their indoor ones, Inaho walked Slaine towards his staircase before turning around to attend his classroom. “Ah, Inaho.” Slaine called out and stopped him. “I forgot to say thanks for the coffee,” he pulled something out of his bag revealing the beverage that he had yet to drink, “also for this morning and the game last night.  I had fun.” Slaine finished and quickly turned around practically running up the stairs.

 _“I also enjoyed myself.”_ Inaho thought and walked towards the back door of his classroom, checking to see if Marito-sensei was facing the board or not. When the coast seemed clear, Inaho slowly opened the door, entered, and closed the door continuing towards his seat.

“Kaizuka, I heard you come in. After seating your things, come and answer these questions.” Marito-sensei turned around and pointed at him with the marker he was holding.

“I understand.” Inaho answered, putting his things down and walking towards the board and just within earshot, he could hear Calm snickering.

* * *

“Inaho, it’s rare for you to be late. Especially two days in a row. Is everything okay?” Inko came and asked once the bell indicting a break sounded.

“I had something planned this morning. I came fully prepared knowing that I was risking my timeliness.”

“Forget that!” Calm sounded exasperated, mainly because Inaho had answered the questions Marito-sensei prepared for him perfectly. “You missed the voting for the committee for the culture festival.”

“Does that really matter?” Inaho queried.

“Well, no one wanted to do it so Marito-sensei chose you and Inko to do it!” Calm explained, cheering up by the situation Inaho was now in.

“First meeting is after school today!” Inko added in, gauging Inaho’s reaction.

“Alright.” Inaho answered back not really caring about his added workload and started to prepare for the next lesson.

* * *

“And how is it that I was chosen for the culture committee, Kaizuka-sensei?” Slaine asked his homeroom teacher after she explained what he had missed during the beginning of class.

“Asseylum volunteered herself and you, she said it would be a great way to integrate you and allow you to make friends!” Yuki exclaimed back, excited about the boy’s position. “The first meeting is afterschool today! If you must, think of it as punishment for being late!” She shouted as she exited the room.

* * *

**_BRIING BRIING BRIING_ **

The bell signaling the end of school sounded and Slaine rose from his seat. Asseylum also got up and came towards Slaine.

“Slaine, let’s go to the meeting!” She sounded excited, making Slaine feel slightly guilty from his lack of enthusiasm. She pulled him along until they reached the committee room and they signed in and sat in the back. Asseylum thought that if they sat there the late comers would be able to sign in and sit down in the front without distracting anyone. Slaine just lethargically sat there, half tuned out toward the information being said. It was all common things, such as the rules and code of conduct for the committee members to follow.

“We’re late!” Slaine could hear make out a female voice behind the door. Soon, a female with short brown hair and Inaho entered the room and quietly took the seat in the front closest to the door. Slaine could see the girl’s face was red, probably from the embarrassment of coming in late, but his focused trailed to the brunet who was now sitting next to her.

 _“Inaho is doing it too? This might be more fun than I thought.”_ Slaine mused to himself and started to focus on what was actually going on in the meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, finally my first kind of fluffy moment between these two, sorry that there was so much dialogue this chapter. I was trying to show how there relationship is starting to grow, but I hope it wasn't to abrupt. I originally had no idea who I wanted to have figure out their feelings first, but i'm pretty sure I'm leaning towards Slaine finding out first. However, we'll have to wait and see until next time!


	8. An Expert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slaine and Inaho aren't sure they are friends yet but they do know for sure that they are both experts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, it's been so long since i've updated. I kind of hit this really bad funk of writers block and lack of idea's and this chapter perfectly captures that because this is probably my least favorite one. I've rewritten it a million times and still wasn;t very satisfied with it /cries/. However, I hope that you like it and i'm so sorry for going onto that unannounced hiatus! I'm going to try to get back into the groove of things as quickly as possible since i'm not as busy right now!

“Inaho, please enlighten me as to why I’m carrying everything again?” Slaine light-heartedly questioned as he began to lift up the cans of paint that Inaho was originally supposed to grab.

“Shall we recap what happened then?” Inaho paused and picked up one of the paint brushes that Slaine dropped as he bent to pick up the cans.

* * *

**Two Hours Earlier**

“Asseylum, can you and your partner come here for a second?” The culture committee head beakoned to Slaine and her as they were preparing to leave. Hearing Asseylum and Slaine being called over, Inaho had halted his own movement wondering what was going to happen. Slaine currently not paying attention to Inaho, set down his stuff and followed Asseylum to the source of the voice that called them over.

The source of the voice and committee chairman was a guy that went by the name Klancain Cruhteo, who Slaine assumed, had foreign blood running through him. Slaine was carefully observing his features and movements, which seemed proud but a bit bashful as soon as Asseylum approached him. _“He probably has a crush on Asseylum, I mean who wouldn’t? She is the epitome of grace and kindness.”_ Slaine was lost in his thoughts remembering back to their childhood days when he also harbored feelings for her. Slaine continued reminiscing until a question directed at him from Klancain suddenly brought him back to whatever was going on at the moment.

“Slaine Troyard? Are you listening?” Klancain asked and watched Slaine who tuned back into the conversation.

“Ah yeah, sorry.” Slaine replied and looked down.

“It’s no problem, I was just introducing myself to you. I am Klancain Cruhteo.” He stuck out his hand and Slaine promptly did the same to shake. “I heard from Asseylum that you have recently moved back to Japan.”

“That is correct.” Slaine answered releasing their hands, “I just finished moving this past Sunday.”

“I hope that this culture festival will be a good chance for you to make new friends while you are here then.” Klancain smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes, it actually out Slaine off a bit.

 _“He isn’t jealous, is he?”_ Slaine mused to himself and then let a small smile creep onto his lips. “Yes, it would be a shame if I had to constantly have Asseylum worry for my social life.” He said half-jokingly and half provocatively.

“I’ll always worry for you Slaine! That’s what childhood friends are for!” She chirped, which only proved to provoke Klancain more.

“Isn’t that kind of you.” Klancain turned his attention to Asseylum. “By the way, I called you over here to ask if it would be possible for you to go out and buy the materials for our banner. Only if it is no problem for you though.”

“Of course we can!” Asseylum exclaimed and turned to Slaine with eyes telling him that he can’t back out of this favor. Suddenly Asseylum was stricken with an idea and turned back to Klancain asking, “this sounds like it’s be a lot of work for just the two of us though. Would it be possible to ask another pair to help out with the task?”

“I see no problem with it.” Klancain replied and handed Asseylum the funds that would be used for the materials. “It is up to you on what to buy for the banner.” He finished and called for another pair to come towards him.

Suddenly Asseylum grabbed Slaine’s arm and pulled him towards Inaho and Inko, who had halted their departure due to Inaho claiming that they may be needed. “Inaho-san! Inko-san!” Asseylum called out as Slaine and she reached their location. “Slaine and I were just assigned the task of collecting the banner materials and it would be too much for the two of us, especially in one trip! Would you to mind helping us out?” Inaho and Inko glanced at each other briefly as if they were trying to communicate through their minds. Inaho broke the eye contact between them to look at Slaine before he responded to Asseylem.

“We don’t mind.” Inaho answered and began to gather his things once more. “Inko, the one standing next to Seylum-sempai is Slaine Troyard. He was piloting the Martian KG-7 Areion during our Nilokeras fight last night. Slaine, the one standing next to me is Amifumi Inko who was piloting the Kataphrakt helping me with Nilokeras.”

“I remember you from yesterday!” Inko exclaimed, startling Slaine. “You were the one that yelled out ‘ORANGE!’ from the window, weren’t you?” Inko was grinning and staring at Slaine who was, once again, flushing out of embarrassment.

“…That was me…” Slaine answered trying not to let his uneasiness slip through. Inaho on the other hand finished packing his items and turned to the red-faced Slaine.

“Slaine, I know I said this before but you really do show your emotions very easily don’t you.” Inaho stated in his usual monotonous voice, but for some reason Slaine felt as though he was trying to throw a hint of humor in there. Especially after he enjoyed Slaine’s reactions to his teasing earlier while asking each other questions.

“Shut up, Orange.” Slaine said with amusement behind it, “you need to show a little more emotion sometimes!”

“Hm I think I am fine with watching you show all your emotions like an open book, Bat.” Inaho responded and started heading for the door with Inko and Asseylum close behind. “We’ll leave you if you don’t hurry.” He turned around and told Slaine.

“Orange, this morning was definitely a fluke. I still hate you.” Slaine slightly laughed as he hurried to catch up with the group.

“That is a lie. I can tell from your tone and facial expressions.” Inaho continued on.

“I don’t remember if I said this to you before, but aren’t you the analytical one.” Slaine rolled his eyes, clearly okay with how this new found acquaintanceship, friendship, whatever it is was turning out. The four of them walked down the hill chatting, Inaho contributing mainly to tease Slaine about something. Without noticing it, the two boys had fallen a pace behind the girls most likely the bickering slowing them down.

“You were the last one to ask a question, correct?” Inaho suddenly brought up, somewhat shocking Slaine as to where that came from.

“Yeah, the whole favorite animal question.” Slaine said whilst remembering Inaho’s earlier teasing as they attempted to sneak into the school.

“I have a question then.” Inaho looked at Slaine who nodded to give him the go ahead. “What is your favorite flower?”

“…favorite flower?” Slaine repeated the words as his shoulders started to shake with laughter. “You..You aren’t asking that cause we just passed the flower shop are you?” Slaine was still laughing at Inaho’s question.

 _“He looks nice like that, laughing. It really is amusing to see his emotions.”_ Inaho thought to himself as he watched Slaine, mostly to watch him but also to hear his answer. Once he had finished laughing, Slaine turned back to Inaho looking at him with questioning eyes.

“Ah, are you serious about wanting to know my favorite flower?” Slaine questioned as Inaho shook his head to signal yes, his wine colored eyes never leaving Slaine’s. Suddenly embarrassed by Inaho’s seriousness, Slaine turned his head the other way breaking their eye contact and started to stutter. “M-my f-f-favorite flower w-would be a blue rose” his voice trailing off a bit towards the end.

 _“He stuttered. If I call him out on it he would become self-conscious though.”_ Inaho came to a mental conclusion and decided to press the question a bit more, all still while watching Slaine. “Why?”

Slaine snapped his head back to look at Inaho, wondering why he was interested in knowing but once he made eye contact he turned his head back again. _“This is kind of embarrassing. Telling a boy you don’t really know all that well about your favorite flowers and such.”_ Slaine thought, but answered Inaho’s question anyways. “Don’t laugh okay? Actually, I don’t think I even need to tell you that…” Slaine chuckled, “I like them because of their meaning. You see, they represent the unattainable, or impossible, but they also embody mystery, or an appreciation for the enigmatic. Romantically speaking, I feel as though it can either represent a miracle or impossibility kind of like ‘I can't have you but I can't stop thinking about you’ or ‘I like you and maybe you’ll like me too?’ The former representing the impossible and the latter representing a mix between an impossible thought, but a mysterious feeling and hoping that a miracle would occur.” Slaine finished his face turning red from his explanation. _“I never intended to tell him all of that! I could have stopped after the whole enigmatic meaning!”_ Slaine was internally yelling at himself for telling Inaho all of that. Slowly, looking back Slaine could see that Inaho was now slightly distracted as he was looking towards the ground now murmuring something that Slaine could barely make out.

“I can't have you but I can't stop thinking about you.” Inaho muttered repeating and pondering the meaning of Slaine’s favorite blue roses.

“Ina- ” Slaine started to call out slightly worried about Inaho’s intense focus on his answer, but was interrupted.

“Inaho-san! Slaine!” The two looked up to realize that quite a distance had opened up between them and the girls. Jogging to catch up, Inaho and Slaine regrouped as they all proceeded to the train station and boarded the train to head towards the market area. It was a relatively simple train ride, but Slaine stayed alert to where the stops were and what line they had taken. Just in case he had to come back here himself one day. They exited and made their way to the department store when Asseylum spoke up. “We should split up! Two of us should go and pick up the board, stenciling, ect while the other two pick up the painting materials!”

“I second that decision!” Inko exclaimed and looked at the two boys. “Paint can get pretty heavy, so you to should do it~” she dragged her words out slightly and it seemed as though she was grinning to herself. Inaho and Slaine only looked at each other before agreeing to the terms Asseylum and Inko set seeing as paint could get pretty heavy. The two groups split up and the boys could hear the girls excitedly start to chatter about all the romantic possibilities that the culture festival opens up every year. Slaine and Inaho walked in a comfortable silence to an area of a department store that sold the materials they needed.

“Inaho, do you even know which colors we’ll need for this?” Slaine asked as realization dawned upon them that they had no idea what to actually pick out.

“…No” Inaho answered and sighed at how they missed that crucial detail. “I’ll call Seylum-sempai and ask her.” Inaho said and began to take out his phone, but Slaine was way ahead of him already putting the call through.

“Hello, Asseylum?” Slaine began once he heard the line connect.

“Yes, Slaine? Do you need something?” She queried, wondering why he would call so soon after splitting up.

“Umm, what colors are we supposed to even be picking up?”

“Hmmm, something that would match the theme of this year’s festival!” she considered for a moment and then replied.

“This year’s theme…” Inaho was mumbling to himself, clearly hearing Asseylum’s voice through Slaine’s phone. “I have an idea then.” Inaho seemed to have come to a conclusion and swiftly took the phone from Slaine and started relaying his thoughts to Asseylum. After a very brief talk, Inaho hung up the phone and returned it to a stunned Slaine.

“A little warning or something next time would be great.” Slaine grumbled putting his phone back into his pocket.

“You’re not the first to tell me that.” Inaho replied and began walking towards the paint brushes picking up a few that looked like they’d do the job well. Then he walked to the paint section and squatted to examine all the colors.

“Inaho, you still haven’t explained anything to me…” Slaine waited patiently for the brunet to share his plans with him.

“The theme is ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’. That’s a common idea when thinking about youth, another idea when people think of youth and beginnings would be spring. What comes to your mind when you think about spring time?” Inaho asked and turned away from the paint to look up at Slaine.

“When I think of a Japanese Spring…cherry blossoms!” Slaine shouted out.

“Correct. We’ll focus the banner on cherry blossoms. I just ran the idea by Asseylum, so Inko and her should be buying things to tie around this.”

“I never would have pegged such a youthful idea from you. I help you choose the colors!” Slaine grinned, taken by the whole spring youth beginning idea. Inaho watched as Slaine squatted down next to him to also look at which colors would be a nice addition. _“Out of all his reactions, I think I like his smile the best.”_ Inaho mused to himself.

“Hey Inaho” Slaine turned around and quickly met wine-colored eyes. Shocked from the close proximity, Slaine fell back meriting a half-smile from Inaho. Recomposing himself from his shocked and flushed state, Slaine started to speak again. “Why don’t we grab a cart or basket? The paint is bound to be heavy.”

“If you feel the need to.” Was all Inaho said before continuing on to assessing which colors would work best to make a gentle cherry blossom banner.

“Do you think we’d be able to carry both the paint and brushes?” Slaine questioned watching Inaho.

“It all depends on the amount we need, which we haven’t gotten to yet.”

“Hmmm, want to strike up a deal then?” Slaine started to grin slyly. “If I remember correctly, you dislike exercise. Wouldn’t it be nice to see you carry the bulk of the materials then~”

“You are suggesting that the loser will carry most to all them items, depending on the amount we choose, correct?”

“Correct! Let’s play rock-paper-scissors to settle this.” Slaine began to stand up and prepare himself.

Contemplating Slaine’s proposition for a moment, Inaho decided to enlighten him and also stood up to play. “Are you ready? Rock-paper-scissors.”

* * *

**Current Time**

“I can’t believe I lost.” Slaine pouted while Inaho restacked the fallen paintbrushes onto the cans Slaine was holding. “We should have played two out of three…”

“One game was enough.” Inaho responded and Slaine almost believed that Inaho looked somewhat relieved. “Wait here for a moment, I need to go and grab one more thing and I don’t expect you want to walk any more than necessary with all of that.”

“You’re trying to make me miserable, aren’t you?” Slaine was saying more rhetorically as he set the items and himself on the ground, already facing Inaho’s back. It was only about few minutes before Inaho came back and placed a basket in front of Slaine. “Do you pity my situation?” Slaine raised an eyebrow.

“No. We decided on how much the loser would carry depending on the amount we have. It is impossible for you to carry four cans of paint and four paintbrushes; therefore this basket is for me.”

“I got it.” Slaine promptly placed two cans of paint within the basket, opting to carry the remaining two and the paintbrushes. _“These cans may be slightly heavy, but they are of a decent size. He knows that it would have been challenging but not impossible to carry it all, especially if I just took two trips.”_ “Are you sure you aren’t being considerate, if so I did lose the bet fair and square.” Slaine asked just to make sure, a bit wary of Inaho’s intentions.

“I already said my purpose for doing this. Would you rather carry everything yourself though?”

“Ah, no this is fine.” Slaine finally said as they fell into a comfortable silence making their way towards check-out. _“Maybe it would have been impossible for him to carry all of those items and that’s why he did this?”_ Slaine continued to think to himself. _“It’s weird, neither of us is talking but this is kind of nice.”_ Even after all the items were bagged, Inaho still decided to carry the bag containing the paintbrushes as well as one of the paint cans.

“Inaho, Slaine-sempai! Are you guys finished as well?” Inko’s voice came from the entrance, Asseylum and her holding their fair share of bags as well.

“We are.” Inaho said curtly, apparently ready to leave.

“Shall we stop by a café on the way back?” Asseylum asked looking to Inko for agreement.

“I’m down!” She exclaimed.

 _“Inaho seems as if he wants to leave.”_ Slaine thought while staring at the brunet until Inaho’s eyes turned and caught Slaine’s. Somewhat embarrassed to have been caught staring yet again, Slaine snapped his head in the opposite direction earning strange looks from the girls. _“Why does this always seem to happen?”_ “I’m actually pretty tired, and I don’t really know my way around this area that well. Would you mind if I left with Inaho?” Slaine directed towards the girls.

“Hmmm, should we all go back together then?” Asseylum looked at Slaine, checking to see if he was okay.

“It’s fine! You go and enjoy yourselves!” Slaine quickly answered once he saw that Asseylum was starting to look downcast. “Inaho you’re okay with that right?”

“Let’s go.” Was all Inaho said before waving the girls off, heading towards the train station. “Are you actually tired?” Inaho asked as soon as they were out of earshot of the girls.

“Not really…I kind of felt that you wanted to leave. Was I wrong?”

“How is it that you can read me better than some of these people I’ve known for years?”

“Maybe I’m just a Kaizuka Inaho expert!” Slaine said jokingly, but it took all his willpower to not blush from his own words.

“Maybe so.”  Inaho replied with that straight-laced face of his causing Slaine’s blush to appear. “Don’t say a joke if you can’t handle it.”

“Shut up…”Slaine pouted as they made their way onto the train and back towards their homes. “What should we do with the supplies?” Slaine wondered as they exited onto their station, still holding all of their recently bought materials.

“We’ll bring them back with us for the night and drop it off in the meeting room tomorrow morning.”

“Alright! I’ll see you in the morning then!”

“In the morning? Did you plan on us meeting here tomorrow?” Inaho questioned, shocked by Slaine’s statement.

“Ah..well..we don’t have too! I don’t really know why I said that…?” Slaine stuttered. _“Really now, why did I say that?”_

“It’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Inaho picked up his bags and started heading towards his home, leaving Slaine behind a slightly confused Slaine.

* * *

By the time Slaine got home and finished preparing for bed, he realized he was a lot more tired that he thought. As he was lying in bed his phone suddenly went off. _“A text from Asseylum?”_

“Slaine, I hope that you get this before you sleep but I have to leave early tomorrow so we won’t be able to walk together. I hope that you can make it to school okay, and it’s nice to see that you and Inaho became friends! Goodnight Slaine.”

 _“Inaho and I are friends? I had a pretty hefty dislike for him up until today…but being his friend, I think I would like that.”_ Slaine mused to himself as he drifted to sleep. Since he had to carry the paint up the hill where his school laid, Slaine woke up early and made his way to the station. _“No way am I going to be late a three days in a row.”_ He thought to himself and checked the time. _“7:25, I made it at a good time.”_ Slaine walked towards the platform but stopped when he saw a familiar brunet holding the same bag as him. Slaine crept closer making sure that it was actually him before calling out his name. “Inaho.” Was all it took for the all too familiar brunet to turn around.

“Morning Slaine.”

“Good morning Inaho, why are you here so early?”

“Did you assume that I normally take the late train?”

“I thought you’d usually leave with your sister, right?”

“She woke up late, she’ll be fine though since she’s driving anyways.”

“You didn’t think to ride with her since you have to carry those?” Slaine asked and pointed to the bag Inaho was holding.

“No, anyways you’re also carrying paint. Also since we are heading the same way, it wouldn’t make sense for us to head their separately unless you didn’t want to walk with me.” Inaho stared at Slaine, no doubt looking for an affirmative or rejection.

“I don’t mind, but how did you know I’d be riding this train?” Slaine questioned Inaho.

Inaho took a slight pause before he answered, and the small smirk that appeared with it led Slaine to believe that he may not have wanted to know. All that Inaho said after his face returned to its normal stoic look however was, “Maybe I’m just a Slaine Troyard expert.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geez this chapter really killed me. I have no idea where i'm taking it from here honestly, so if there anything anyone would like to see then I'm all down for ideas! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of it!


	9. Thoughtless Annoyance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Slaine and Inaho's interactions start to grow throughout the week until Inaho says some careless words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I hope y'all are doing well! Okay, so i'm posting this chapter at like 4 in the morning and i'm crazy tired so it wasn't edited very well. If you catch any issues then feel free to point them out to me so that I can work on correcting it! I feel like this chapter helps to slow my pacing because I honestly felt like I was rushing through the whole beginning of this fic D: I hope you guys like it! I am also going to clarify why this is starting on Wednesday. Sunday Slaine moved back to Japan, Monday he meets Inaho and challenges him and Monday night they play against each other, Tuesday is Inaho and Slaine's redo day and they both go shopping for the committee later that day, meaning that they will now start on Wednesday.

**Wednesday**

_“Maybe I’m just a Slaine Troyard expert.”_

Slaine could feel his face start to heat up before he caught his breath and huffed, and then putting on his best stoic look, he made eye contact with Inaho again. “Inaho, I can’t tell if you’re joking when you it making a face like that.” Slaine brushed off Inaho’s comment but was secretly proud of himself for not allowing his face to flush, seeing as that’s becoming a problem for him lately.

“Oh really? I thought that it was obvious especially seeing that we’ve only actually spoken to each other for one day and the amount of knowledge I gained from that isn’t enough to proclaim me as an expert. Even if I took into account the knowledge that Asseylum told me and the brief minutes I spoke with you through Aldnoah and on Monday, I still believe that it wouldn’t be enough. I simply said it to get a reaction out of you.”

 “Oi Orange I was being sarcastic and I’m not that easily flustered!” Slaine exclaimed but managed to control his facial expressions. No way would he let Inaho get the better of him except Inaho always finds a way to get the better of people.

Without skipping a beat Inaho replied, “I find that hard to believe seeing as you reverted back to calling me ‘Orange’ which I feel you’d call me only in situations where we are challenging each other, also your voice raised in tone which hints towards a slight agitation that you may have felt from my previous comment. I applaud your efforts on controlling your facial expression though, even with my inability to read faces well, you are most definitely an open-book Bat.” Inaho checked his phone to see the time and then looked back up at Slaine to see what type of reaction he’d get from him this time.

“I can’t tell if you are truly applauding me or insulting me but it definitely feels like the latter.” Slaine sighed. There really was no fighting back when it came to Inaho.

“Do I seem like the type that would lie?”

“Of course not, I can easily deduce that in the short amount of time I’ve spent with you.” Slaine quickly answered so Inaho wouldn’t get any weird ideas of Slaine disliking or distrusting him. _“Despite what I say, he’s kind of fun to hang around.”_ He mused to himself, never would he allow Inaho to know that he actually finds enjoyment out of their conversations though. _“I bet he’d say ‘do you actually enjoy being teased?’ or ‘you have strange tastes in conversations seeing as I always try to get an emotion out of you.’”_ Slaine laughed to himself, which gained him a questioning eye from Inaho. Well Slaine thought it was questioning, but Inaho’s face hadn’t changed enough to fully allow Slaine the guarantee that he had read the brunet’s expression correctly.

“Oh, and how is that?” Inaho added on to his question as the train pulled up into the station. Slaine and he had made their way on and found seats before continuing. Setting the paint down, Slaine followed suit, Inaho had looked back at him which reminded Slaine to answer the question before he got too comfortable in his seat.

“For one, you are extremely blunt. Even on our first meeting, or I guess second meeting in the staff room, you didn’t hesitate to call me out for…what was it again?” Slaine feigned ignorance and watched Inaho sigh before answering his question.

“For being rather emotional, which isn’t a fallacy.”

“Well that added on comment helps prove a point, but yes. It was the first real time we were meeting face-to-face and yet you called me out on being ‘rather emotional’ and ‘not good at hiding my emotions’.”

“As I said before, both are not untrue.”

“Quiet for a second, Orange. You asked so I will not tell you my observations about you.”

“I only asked why it was you think I’m not the lying type.”

“There are quite a few points as to why I think that.”

“I’ll be taking that as a compliment.”

“Let me finish Orange. The first point I mentioned is that you are brutally honest. Secondly is the fact that you are observant and very smart, I can tell from the way you talk and play Aldnoah. Therefore you wouldn’t risk a chance of a lie getting caught and would instead speak the truth, just maybe not the whole truth, until you can observe the response of the other party and calculate what they can or cannot know based on the situation. Lastly, you may not be an open-book but your emotions aren’t as closed off as others may think either. It’s a bit hard and I’m unsure most of the time, but I am starting to be able to read your minimal facial expressions and voice changes.” Slaine finished while watching Inaho who had what seemed like shock momentarily pass through his face. “Surprised, right?”

“…Not really, it’s only logical to come to that conclusion after careful consideration of my personality from your perspective and experiences with me.”

“Wow, and here I thought I was doing so well with my analysis of Kaizuka Inaho.” Slaine’s words dripped with sarcasm and false hurt.

“I never said that you were doing a bad job of it.” Inaho replied picking up his bag and standing up after he felt the train coming to a halt. “This is our stop, Bat, unless you want me to leave you here again.” Inaho said over his shoulder as he exited the now opened doors.

“Don’t patronize me, Orange. I know this is our stop.” Slaine picked up his bag and followed Inaho out.

“That was a joke.”

“Ah like I said earlier, it’s hard and I’m unsure when you don’t change anything about your voice or facial expression.” Slaine mumbled out and Inaho turned to see a somewhat pouty looking Slaine.

 _“An open-book.”_ Inaho mused and continued walking towards the school after slowing his pace somewhat so Slaine could catch up. The rest of the walk to the school was filled with idle chatter, mainly from Slaine, but Inaho found that he actually liked listening to whatever Slaine said. The blond boy had a certain characteristic that Inaho found interesting and he wasn't bad company, but Inaho would never tell him that. _“He would most likely take it with a negative connotation and reply with ‘it’s because you find it fun to tease me’ or ‘you’re just trying to get a reaction out of me aren’t you, Orange?’”_ The walk to school felt a lot shorter than before and for the first time since he transferred, Slaine wasn’t late.

Like Inaho had expected, Yuki had driven and made it to school before either of them and happened to be the teacher on duty this morning. _“Nao! …and Slaine…?”_ Yuki had to double-take when she saw the two boys walking towards the gate together. _“They’re holding similar bags, did they go shopping together too?”_ She was shocked by the sight of the two since the meeting she had witnessed before had be less than pleasant. “Nao!” She beckoned him over before whispering in his ear, “is he the reason why you decided to walk today?”

“Yes, and I suspect that this situation will continue.” Inaho finished before turning back to Slaine and walking into the building. _“Wait, his wanting to walk wasn’t because he was meeting a girl?!”_ Yuki was stunned by her own thoughts, _“I surely thought that Nao had found a nice girl that he wanted to spend more time with…No, surely Nao will be able to have a nice rose colored high school life!”_ Yuki pumped herself up and continued with her morning duty while envisioning which girl at their school would make the best match for her little brother.

“Did your sister need you to do something important?” Slaine asked as soon as they entered the building.

“No, she simply asked why I decided to walk. By the way, my shoe locker is over there.” Inaho pointed to the far-left side of the entrance and momentarily split from Slaine since his shoe locker was in the middle of the entrance.

“Morning Inaho!” Inaho glanced over his shoulder while he was put his shoes on and saw Inko come towards him with Rayet in tow. “Ah, you brought the paint!”

“There would be no reason for me not to, especially--”

“Are you done yet?” Slaine interrupted Inaho by coming towards him and then realized that he was talking to others, one he was familiar with and another he didn’t know. “Oh, good morning Amifumi-san and …?”

“Rayet, Rayet Areash.” Rayet answered and held out her hand, which Slaine took as a signal for a handshake. Sticking out his own hand and reaching for her’s, Slaine was about to answer before she cut him off. “Nice to meet you face-to-face, Slaine.”

“…? Ah, Rayet!" Slaine shouted out as the realization dawned on him and Inaho gave him an expression between surprised and curious, well as much of an expression as Inaho could give. Rayet happened to catch whatever look had crossed Inaho’s face and so she gave Slaine a smile before releasing their hands and then turned back towards Inko, whispering something in her ear. Inko, excited by whatever Rayet was saying, started to shake her head in a yes manner and grinned. Before she could voice whatever Rayet had said to her, Inaho had eyed Slaine and then the bags to indirectly tell him that they needed to put the stuff up. Understanding the message Slaine turned back towards the girls and gave his farewell. “It was nice meeting you Rayet and Amifumi-san. Inaho and I have to go and drop these bags off in the committee room so I will talk to you later.”

“Why is it that you call Rayet and you call each other by your given name and Inko by her surname?” Inaho queried soon after they had departed from the girls while making their way to the committee room.

“Oh, aren’t you the curious one?” Slaine grinned and teased Inaho, “I won’t tell you though.” He said and picked up his pace a bit, throwing another smile over his shoulder. _“Inaho always teases me. This is a good payback.”_ Slaine thought to himself as Inaho caught up to him.

“I can always figure out through other methods.” Inaho answered curtly before they arrived in front of the committee door. Suddenly he held out his bag and motioned for Slaine to grab it. “I believe that our previous bet was that the loser had to carry all the materials. Make sure to put it in the far back corner.” Inaho said and turned to walk away leaving a confused Slaine.

 _“Did he seriously bring up that bet after carrying it all this way?”_ Slaine asked himself and looked at the bag that Inaho had passed off to him. _“Is it because I said I wouldn’t tell him? That Orange! He is so petty, even telling me to put it in the far corner.”_ He started fuming but still put the bags in the location Inaho requested before closing the door and heading towards his own classroom. Once he entered the room, Slaine felt proud of himself because it took 3 days but he finally wasn’t late.

The morning classes went by extremely fast and Slaine could see that during every break they had between teachers Asseylum would check her phone and send a quick text then look at Slaine. The minute it was time for lunch all of Asseylum’s suspicious actions made sense as she come towards Slaine as quickly as she could and asked if he would accompany her for lunch. “I have to stop by the school store and get some bread first though. I don’t know if you’d want to wait long for me…”

“That would be no problem at all,” she chirped and continued on, “meet me on the rooftop then!” She concluded and walked away, waving at Slaine before she went towards the opposite staircase that he would take. The lunch rush was brutal, but once he got the one and only yakisoba bread he could buy he headed towards the rooftop and was shocked to see Asseylum with Inaho, Rayet, Inko, and some other blond haired boy that he hadn’t met yet. Slaine approached the group and sighed when he remembered Inaho’s pettiness, when Rayet suddenly made room next to her and motioned for Slaine to sit by her. Confused, he still took the seat and watched Rayet make a smirk towards Inaho’s direction before starting a conversation with Slaine.

“Slaine, you probably don’t know but this blondie here is our friend Calm Craftman. Calm, this is Slaine Troyard.” She pointed to Calm who smiled at Slaine before giving him a handshake.

“Nice to meet you, Craftman-kun.” Slaine said politely before Calm made a disturbed face and corrected him.

“That sounds way to stiff man! Just call me Calm!” The boy exclaimed and waited for Slaine’s reply.

“Oh, then you can just call me Slaine.” He returned with a smile.

“Look at you making friends already!” Asseylum chipped in with a smile and clap of her hands. “Did you know that it was actually Rayet who invited us to lunch with them! I didn’t know you were so close with her~”

“I wouldn’t have suspected it either.” Inaho pitched in and if Slaine was reading him correctly, he sounded a bit annoyed? There was no reason for Inaho to be annoyed though, so Slaine pinned it as an incorrect guess of Inaho’s emotions; yet, something about his demeanor made Slaine feel like Inaho actually wasn’t very happy at the moment so he decided to clear up the misunderstanding.

“About that,” he started, “I only know Ray-” a sudden hand shot out and caught his mouth. When he looked up it was actually Rayet who had a devious look to her.

“What does it matter to you how I know him, Inaho.” She had a sly smile to her face. Was she testing Inaho? But what reason would she have too, he should be especially picky over Slaine’s relationships since he and him had just started talking to each other.

“I was just interested in knowing how you two are on a first name basis without having met each other before.”

“I can expl-” Slaine was cut off again by Rayet clamping down harder. So apparently she had something planned and it involved Slaine’s silence through the situation.

“Oh, what makes you think that today was our first time meeting?” She asked with a sarcastic curiosity, and Slaine was positive that Inaho now seemed like he was slowly losing his patience.

“You said it yourself this morning, and Slaine obviously had to think for a while before remembering who you were.” Inaho paused and sighed, obviously tired of whatever Rayet was doing, “you probably know each other from that time we played Aldnoah on Sunday and only told each other your first names right? That’s why it was so much more natural for Slaine to call out to you with familiarity because you guys were doing it in the game.” Rayet gave a small click of her teeth before sighing and letting go of Slaine.

“Correct, if you knew then why’d you ask?” and her sly smile returned as she eyed back and forth between Slaine and Inaho.

“I wanted to hear the answer from Slaine, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen with you covering his mouth.” Somewhere in Inaho’s reply lied Rayet’s reason for interrogating him because as soon as he finished she smirked and turned to Inko to tell her something. Inaho filed it away for later to ask what was going on that required her to be so secretive. Asseylum was watching the whole thing but never interjected because she was excited about Slaine’s new found friendship with everyone, but something about Rayet and Slaine’s interaction interested her. As soon as Rayet had turned to whisper to Inko, Calm addressed Slaine.

“You did well during that game on Sunday. By the way, I was the one who had played the role of the prince.” Calm was smiling, probably remembering his five seconds of fame when he turned the tides on Rayet and won the game for the Terrans.

“Oh yes you did really well on countering Rayet and quickly accepting a victory for the Terrans.” Slaine returned with a gentle smile, truly impressed by the gameplay that Calm presented. Calm was a bit shocked at how nice Slaine’s smile was and became a bit bashful before stuttering and pointing towards Inaho.

“I..It, my position, no strategy was all dictated by him.”

Slaine faced Inaho and rolled his eyes before allowing his smile to return. “Yeah, that annoying Orange really outdid me that time.” He was chuckling a bit and Inaho felt compelled to reply to the bright boy chuckling.

“Bat, you tried.” That was all he said which stopped Slaine mid-chuckle and made him stare at him.

“That was the worst attempt at a compliment I’ve ever heard!” Calm burst into laughter which turned infectious cause Slaine was laughing and agreeing with him. Inaho watched the multiple expressions that had just passed by Slaine’s face from amusement to stunned to mirth and just for a brief moment, he smiled. Rayet who was watching Inaho was stupefied to see an actual smile on his face, not like he never smiled but they were extremely rare. She envisioned his line of sight, and face-palmed that she even had too after seeing the laughing older blond boy who had become reflected in Inaho’s eyes. Inko seems to have had the same reaction and was watching them with interest. Asseylum who had happened to be watching Rayet was giddy when she saw her look from Inaho to Slaine and face-palmed. The rest of lunch passed quickly, majorly composing of Slaine and Inaho going back and forth between different arguments and strategies to use during Aldnoah while the others had occasional side conversations once the Aldnoah talk got to intense. The annoyance that Inaho had felt during the beginning half of lunch completely dispersed by the end, but he was still confused as to why he was annoyed in the first place opting to also file that into the back of his mind and think about later.

In the three days he had been at the school, Slaine was honestly happy that he found a group of people he could talk to and even a rival that he could quarrel with. In that state of happiness Slaine found himself looking forward to the committee meeting after school and once the last bell sounded, he was the one who rushed towards Asseylum’s desk and waited for her to go.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself!” She exclaimed on the way toward the committee room, “you’ve already made friends and it seems your starting to make more meaningful relationships~” she giggled and Slaine was puzzled. _“Is she talking about Inaho? I guess making a rival, friend, whatever we are is a good thing…”_ he pondered over what she said until they made it to the room. They made it there relatively early but Klancain instantly focused on them the minute they entered the room, “ _probably because of Asseylum.”_ As if he couldn’t make it any more obvious, he rushed to the two of them and immediately struck up a conversation with Asseylum. Slaine couldn’t care less about whatever Klancain wanted to babble to her about, but once Inko and Inaho walked in, he tuned into the conversation.

“…so you’ll be starting on the sketches for the banner today and I hope you’ll be able to begin painting it this week as well.” Klancain finished and that was honestly the only part of the conversation Slaine needed to hear anyways, but Klancain still looked at him as if he was intruding on a personal topic when they made eye contact. Instead of actually caring though, Slaine treaded towards Inaho and Inko and relayed the information. Inaho was the true visionary for the banner and so Asseylum, Inko, and Slaine decided to leave it up to him to dictate jobs and what they were supposed to be doing. Incidentally the girls were to work on the stenciling of the words and the boys would work together on the background and detail.

“I can’t trust that this will come out very well if I draw it.” Slaine pointed out when Inaho had begun to work on the outline for the tree that would hold the blossoming cherry blossoms.

“It’ll be fine, we can work on the actual detailing tomorrow and the paint should also help cover up any extremely noticeable mistakes.” The two of them worked in silence, but Inaho would occasionally look up to watch Slaine’s progress, and somehow Slaine’s progress turned into Slaine himself. After two hours of drawing and erasing over and over, everyone was satisfied with how it was turning out and decided that it would be best to leave it at that for the day. Everything was extremely casual as they all walked home together, as though they’ve been friends for years which was strange for Inaho since most of his friends find his personality to be a tad bit antisocial. Inko got off a station before the rest of them did and Slaine and Asseylum walked in a different direction from Inaho. So when they had arrived at their station, Asseylum and Slaine said their respective goodbyes to Inaho and began walking. Only a few minutes after, Inaho received a call from Inko.

“This is Inaho speaking.” He answered.

“Inaho, this is a very important question and I need you to answer as honestly as possible okay?” She said but it didn’t sound worried so Inaho assumed that she was okay and only wanted to ask a question out of personal interest.

“What is the question?”

“…What do you think of Slaine?” Now this was a question that he wasn’t expecting. What did he think of Slaine? What conclusions could he possibly have come across in the few days he spent with him? Why was Inko interested in this in the first place? All of these questions swarmed his head before he cleared his thoughts and gave his answer.

“I can’t say. I don’t have sufficient data on him yet to fully answer your question.”

“It’s just a simple question, I’m only asking how you feel about him.”

“And I’m saying I don’t know. I will tell you as soon as I feel like I know him well enough to form a solid conclusion.”

“…promise?”

Inaho sighed before he promised Inko and hung up. With these new questions and information he had filed away earlier, Inaho had a lot of thinking to do that night.

* * *

**Thursday**

“…These people are vicious when it comes to lunch time.” Slaine grumbled as he sat down with the same group as yesterday in the same spot.

“At least you got a drink.” Calm told him in an attempt to cheer him up.

“It’s survival of the fittest here!” Rayet sneered and proudly showed the menchi-katsu that she obtained.

“Do you want to share with me?” the question slipped out and suddenly all eyes turned towards Inaho. “It would be unhealthy to completely skip out on lunch and a small drink would not be able to fill you up.”

“I have an extra pair of chopsticks if you want to use them!” Inko beamed and practically shoved the item into Slaine’s hands.

“Inaho! You are so kind to offer up your lunch, but it wouldn’t be good if you were still hungry afterwards as well. Slaine, I will also share with you.” Asseylum opened her bento and motioned for Slaine to come over.

“…Thank you very much for the offer Asseylum, truly thank you. I think that I will go to Inaho though since he offered first!” Slaine said and scooted towards Inaho. “Thank you for the food.” Slaine said as everyone stared at him take the first bite. His face instantly brightened with and Slaine swore he heard Inaho let out a light snicker. “What was that?” Slaine said and turned to him, wondering if he had done something weird.

“You’re such an open-book.” Inaho replied before eating a rolled omelet.

* * *

**Friday**

At this point eating with Inaho’s group was a common thing and Slaine headed up to the roof-top first after Asseylum told him that Inaho specifically requested that he didn’t go to buy anything for lunch today. Upon his arrival only Inko and Inaho were there, Rayet and Calm were buying food and Asseylum warned them that she would be late due to a teacher meeting that she had. “Oi Inaho, how come you didn’t want me to buy anything?” was the first thing out of Slaine’s mouth when he saw the brunet boy.

“Did you think if the possibility that I was messing with you and now you won’t be able to get lunch?” He responded in his normal monotonous voice, but Slaine was starting to read him a bit better and heard the underlying tone.

“You’re joking.”

“I am joking, nice catch.” Inaho responded and handed a bento box to Slaine.

“…you made me a bento?” Slaine was stunned by the act of the younger brunet boy.

“I lost a bet.” Inaho answered and tossed a bitter tea to Slaine who started racking his brain as to what cause this sudden act of kindness. Suddenly he remembered that they did have a bet, it was that race to school that Slaine won the day that they made up.

“I totally forgot about that! Thanks Inaho!” Slaine grinned and Inaho looked away, he didn’t know for sure why though.

“Ooh, a bento huh?” Inko popped in and reminded the two boys that she was there. It wasn’t like they were doing anything embarrassing but Slaine couldn’t help but blush when she pointed out that she had seen the whole exchange.

“You’re blushing again, Slaine.” Inaho happened to point out, much to the dislike of Slaine who ignored it and decided to eat the bento.

“Thanks again Inaho.” He mumbled and went straight for the omelet, remembering that Inaho had said something about omelets being his favorite. This bento was even better than the one he had shared with Inaho yesterday, apparently Inaho remembered he liked his food more salty than sweet plus he provided bitter tea to compliment the meal and Slaine’s taste palate.

Everyone else had made their way to the rooftop and Inko informed the other three of the bento that Inaho had made for Slaine. Rayet just gave them that sly smile of hers, Calm had complained about how Inaho had never made anything for him, and Asseylum cheered over the friendship that the two were building up.

“I’ll wash the box and give it back to you tomorrow, Inaho.” Slaine said as he finished the last bite and closed the box. “I really enjoyed it.”

“I could tell. I’ve said this before but you’re-”

“-an open-book, right?” Slaine sighed and finished for him. “You always say that.”

“You’re incapable of hiding your emotions.”

“Do you really believe that?” Slaine asked Inaho with a look in his eyes that he couldn’t decipher.

“I do.”

“Hmmm, then how about it? I’ll show you that I can hide my emotions as well.” Slaine looked straight into Inaho’s eyes.

“I doubt that.”

“You really shouldn’t underestimate me…Orange.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Just a reminder for why they start on Wednesday if you didn't read the beginning notes! They are starting on Wednesday because Slaine first played again Inaho on Sunday when he moved to Japan, Monday morning he meets Inaho and Monday night plays him in a revenge match, Tuesday is their redo day and Tuesday afternoon is their committee/shopping day, and that leaves Wednesday as my starting point in the week for them.  
> \- Since this chapter slows down my pacing a bit I think this fic might become prolonged with another 6 to 7,more or less, chapters until I finish it.  
> \- The good thing is that I actually know where i'm taking it now, and i've worked out some of the major roadblocks for me!  
> \- I'm going to try to update at least once a week, hopefully twice if i'm not busy.  
> \- Thank you for the comments and kudos guys, that is legit keeps me writing.  
> \- If you want then hit me up on my [Tumblr](http://azure-sekai.tumblr.com/) and i'm down to talk about practically anything!


	10. Confused Burden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The look on Slaine’s face was a bit to off-putting and Inaho wanted nothing more than to wipe it off, but how was that possible since he is probably the root of it?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, it has been ages since I updated. To be honest, I had no idea how to write this chapter because I kind of put myself in an unexpected tight spot with how I ended it off last time. I am actually really glad I got this chapter written though, although it is a bit shorter than the rest! I was really trying to get it out before the holidays ended so that this could be my present to you! I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Warning: I updated the tags cause I took a very unforeseen turn with this. Please don't hate me, and I am still trying to figure out where I want this to go after putting in this change. Also, I've been typing for the past few hours and it is almost 4AM so I am super sorry for the many errors that I am sure to have missed. I'm just really excited and wanted to get this out as soon as possible.

**Friday**

“You really shouldn’t underestimate me…Orange.”

“It wasn’t an underestimation, just a deduction based on what I know about you.” Inaho said as he tried to clear up the tension that grew between them. He didn’t really know why, because he didn’t care too much when it got tense between someone else and himself, but he didn’t want this feeling to drag on between him and Slaine.

“Ah, is that so.” Slaine said more as a statement then a question. Something about his tone and attitude had shifted though, it wasn’t the normal pout Slaine put out and everyone eating could tell that Inaho had royally screwed up. “Like I said, I’ll wash this and return it tomorrow Inaho.” Slaine lifted up the now empty bento box, “I’m leaving now. I forgot I had to turn something in to Kaizuka-sensei.” Slaine turned towards the door that led back into the school and threw his hand up as a simple wave to signal bye.

“Inaho! Slaine looked really…really…I don’t know but it’s your fault Inaho!” Inko declared as soon as Slaine was through the door and out of earshot.

“Inaho, I could tell what your intentions were with that last statement but are you dumb?” Rayet let out a sigh it seemed she’d been holding for a while.

 _“Did I say something wrong?”_ Inaho furrowed his brows and recalled his conversation with Slaine. _“‘Do you really believe that?’ did he get offended? He didn’t seem irritated though.”_

“Don’t hurt yourself thinking,” Rayet sighed again, “and scratch that last question, I got my answer idiot.”

“Seylum-sempai, you’ve known Slaine for a long time. Does he usually hide his emotions?” Inaho questioned and saw Asseylum jump a bit.

“Ah, um… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to share it with you.” Asseylum nervously turned to Inaho and made eye contact. “It was arou-”

“That’s okay,” Inaho stopped her, “if its anything personal then I would like to hear it from Slaine himself. Now then, I am going to go and speak to him.” Inaho stood up and excused himself. _“I don’t believe that he’d be capable of hiding his emotions for too long but I don’t have sufficient data on him. Also, does he mean to act like this only with me or with people in general?”_

Inaho made his way towards the 2nd year classrooms and decided to make sure that everything was alright. For some reason, he had this sinking feeling at the bottom of his stomach ever since Slaine had questioned him. Of course he didn’t see anything wrong with what he said, but Slaine’s demeanor had put him off quite a bit.

“Nao!” Yuki’s voice came from a bit farther down the hall and broke Inaho out of his thoughts. “Did Slaine return to eating with you guys or is he in his classroom?” Yuki questioned, “He turned in this form to me but he forgot to fill part of it out.”

 _“So he wasn’t just trying to get away from me earlier then.”_ “I haven’t seen him since he left us, but he is most likely in the classroom. Check there first.” Inaho lifted his arm and pointed down the hall as if he was able to visibly draw a line that would lead to Slaine. “Actually, I can go ahead and hand it over since I have business with him.” Yuki simply smiled and handed the papers off to him.

“Thank you, Nao! Tell him to return it to me as soon as he fills out the missing part!” Yuki shouted as she started to make her way down the hall.

Inaho went along the corridor until he stood outside Slaine’s class. Slaine’s face wasn’t visible since he was reading a book, but he didn’t seem angry. He didn’t seem like anything to be exact.

“Slaine,” Inaho addressed him once he had made it to Slaine’s desk. Slaine, on the other hand, just let out a dull “hmmm” and continued to read whatever book was in his hand. “Yuki-nee wanted me to hand you back this slip you just turned into her. She said you forgot to fill in some information.”

This elicited a response from Slaine. He quickly closed the book, seeing as he didn’t even see where he left off he probably wasn’t paying attention to the book anyways, and placed it on his desk. Now that Inaho could see his face, Slaine looked awfully bored.

“Here,” Inaho said and placed the paper in front of him.

“You didn’t read it did you, Inaho?” Slaine questioned, a somewhat dubious tilt to his voice.

“That would be an invasion of privacy.” Inaho’s voice was low and even although it took an unconscious defensive tone to it.

“Nice standards you hold for yourself.” Slaine murmured.

“Are you implying that you don’t hold similar standards?” Inaho shot back.

“No, I do. I assumed that you would do anything when it comes to information gathering though.” Slaine slowly inhaled, readily preparing himself to defend against Inaho’s antics.

“I have boundaries.”

“Is that so…”Slaine deflated and mumbled to himself. Inaho assumed that was the case and decided to stop responding at that point.

A few minutes of silence passed between them, nothing but the sound of other students and the scratching of Slaine’s pen to fill the void. Inaho knew that he came to meet Slaine to confront him about whatever had happened on the roof, but he couldn’t get himself to say anything.

Inaho sighed. He really couldn’t understand why his friends made him chase after Slaine, however the silence that now lingered between them felt strange. It wasn’t like any other silences they had before, not like they had many since Slaine was a good conversationalist. The one now felt tense though. It was as if Slaine was trying to use the atmosphere to tell Inaho to leave.

“Slaine,” Inaho started, “You-”

“Sorry, Inaho. Another time.” Slaine rose from his seat and picked up the paper, leaving Inaho a bit baffled by how Slaine sounded. It wasn’t how Slaine normally spoke. Normally his voice felt kind of soft and warm or cozy? Just then, however, it sounded cold. It was deprived of any willingness to keep company with Inaho any longer.

Inaho waited a few minutes before leaving the room, not wanting to run into Slaine by accident. Inaho returned to the roof where he was met with a barrage of “did you apologize?” and “is he okay now?”

“He was busy.” A quick sigh followed afterwards, unknowingly. Rayet, on the other hand, seemed to catch it and beckoned Inko over to whisper something in her ear.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it!” Calm insisted, “I’m sure it’ll work out in the end.”

Another sigh.

“I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be beating myself up over.” Inaho deadpanned.

“That’s something you need to think about on your own.” Rayet got up and dusted herself off, “anyways, let’s get back to class or we’ll be late.”

* * *

 

Inaho tried to pay attention to whatever was going on in class, but his mind continually dazed off since he already knew the material being lectured.

 _“I’ll ask him if I offended him during the committee meeting today. I won’t offer an apology however until I am certain that I was in the wrong since empty apologies are worthless.”_ Inaho sighed, caught up in his thoughts.

Inko was carefully watching Inaho and jotting something down.

Inaho didn’t realize class had ended until he noticed someone staring down at him. Inko smiled once Inaho made eye contact with her and suggested that they head to the committee meeting soon. Inaho was all too willing to go.

* * *

 

“Slaine, you’ve seemed a bit down since lunch. Are you okay?” Asseylum asked as they made their way to the committee room.

“Everything is fine.” Slaine droned, focused on nothing in particular.

Asseylum heaved an exhale, “Inaho has good intentions. His wording is just crude, so don’t be mad at him?” The end of her phrase tilting into a question.

Slaine stared at her, face devoid of anything, “I’m not angry. Promise. I’m just thinking over somethings.”

Confusion crossed her features for a bit until her eyes widened with realization and she took a sharp intake of breath. “Slaine,” her voice came out more rough than usual, “if this is about the past then you really shouldn’t bottl-”

“We’re here.” Slaine interrupted with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. It was clearly forced and it pained Asseylum to look at him.

“Slaine, please.” Asseylum pleaded as she reached up to touch his face and force him to look at her, however the door the room slide open to reveal Klancain who looked shocked at the display before him.

“What’s going on out here?” Klancain reigned in his thoughts and just decided to glare at Slaine while Asseylum withdrew her hands.

Slaine contemplated and took a deep breath before answering.

“Nothing that involves you,” his voice was sickly sweet and the smile that followed oozed “stay in your place.”

Klancain took a step back and Asseylum froze, the frigid look in Slaine’s eyes chilling even her.

“Excuse me,” Slaine took a few steps forward, “you’re blocking the doorway,” he finished as he brushed past Klancain.

“Slaine!” Asseylum followed suit after she processed everything that just happened. Turning to Klancain, she apologized and sped after Slaine. Asseylum couldn’t see his face but she could tell by the shrug of his shoulders that he took a deep breath or sigh. Possibly regretting what just happened. “Slaine,” she tried one more time before he turned to her, the regret within his eyes.

“I’m sorry about that display. I’ll apologize to him later.”

“Okay…”Asseylum trailed, shocked because that was the most sincere Slaine has sounded since lunch. “Just don’t overthink anything, you’re away now.”

Slaine’s defensives went back up when that same empty smile from earlier reappeared. “Thank you for your sentiments.”

* * *

 

“Sorry we’re late!” Inko practically bounced into the room, excited to start working on festival props.

Asseylum glanced up and flashed a friendly smile, but Slaine continued to focus on the work in front of him.

Inko and Inaho marched straight to Klancain although Inaho’s eyes never left Slaine.

Klancain peered up from his documents when he saw Inko and Inaho’s shadows casted over him.

“What is our assignment for today?” Inko asked, elbowing Inaho to look away from Slaine and at the person they were addressing.

“You and Kaizuka are going to be on banner duty with Asseylum and Troyard until the completion of the banner. Now then, hurry along and work hard to make up lost time.” Klancain waved them off. He was focused on his documents and the look in his eyes showed his dedication towards this event.

“Slaine! Asseylum! We’ll be working with you guys on the completion of the banner!” Inko informed the two as she and Inaho made their way over.

“Of course you would,” Slaine chuckled, “Inaho was the one who came up with the idea.”

Inaho was startled by the tone of Slaine’s voice. Maybe he was really was okay? The look on Slaine’s face said otherwise however. It seemed like a smile, but it was blank. Nothing could be read from it, and that was horrifying.

The look on Slaine’s face was a bit to off-putting and Inaho wanted nothing more than to wipe it off, but how was that possible since he is probably the root of it? Inaho sighed slowly and put down his things.

Inko glanced between the two of them before she spoke, “I’ll work with Asseylum so please go and assist Slaine.”

 _“I would have even if you didn’t ask me to,”_ Inaho thought and made his towards where Slaine was sitting whilst staring at a piece of paper.

“We decided to use this as a reference,” Slaine pushed a picture towards Inaho, “I am in charge of drawing out the outline while the girls start on words. I am thinking of having this go here and this go here,” Slaine started to explain his sketch to Inaho.

“It’s good, but I think somethings can be placed better.” Inaho grabbed a pencil of his own and started to mark the sketch. It didn’t seem to bother Slaine much as he listened intently to Inaho’s own suggestions, offering some “I sees” and “that would work.”

Despite Slaine supposedly being angry, his professionalism really showed through as he collaborated with Inaho over how the banner should go. The only thing was that both of them spoke as if they were walking on eggshells. Slaine’s words were more distant and Inaho spoke as if he was testing Slaine’s mood with each suggestion. The worst part was when silence fell between them. It was so awkward that it was almost painful. It was obvious that Slaine was lost in thought, but it was equally as obvious that Inaho was also thinking about the situation.

“Slaine, are you finished?” Asseylum asked and brought both of them back to their attention.

“Basically,” Slaine glimpsed over he and Inaho’s extremely messy doodle. “I can take this home and clean it up,” Slaine addressed to Inaho before facing Asseylum, “let’s go now?”

“Mmm, sure.” She replied warily as she looked at Inaho. Inaho raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say a word.

Asseylum left to pack her things while Inko chatted to her. Slaine was also packing his when Inaho approached him, not really sure what he was going to say. Inaho sighed before he opened his mouth.

“Slaine, let’s talk.”

“Later. I’m tired and want to go home as soon as possible.”

“Are you avoiding me?” Inaho cut straight to the chase.

“Why? I have no need to.” Slaine answered casually, placing his backpack on his shoulder. “I’ll talk to you some other time.” He said and head towards the door where Asseylum was waiting.

As soon as the two left the room Inko ran up to Inaho.

“Inaho, you do realize you need to talk to him today right.” She stated her question like it was an absolute fact.

“Why must it be today?” Inaho fired back.

“You’ll lose your timing if it isn’t,” she replied with an uncharacteristic seriousness to her tone, “plus it’ll bother you if you don’t.”

“How do you know that it will bother me?” Inaho asked out of true curiosity since his friends have always told him how hard it was to read his expressions.

“Please. You have been sighing all day, which is uncharacteristic of you. I even counted them if you want to see.” Inko smirked.

Inaho began to pack up his things, which wasn’t much since he only took out a pencil.

“Hurry up before they are far!” Inko rushed him, but the concern in her voice was genuine.

“…Thank you, Inko.” Inaho stated before he left the room.

“You’re welcome,” Inko responded to no one in particular.

* * *

 

 _“I am so tired of thinking.”_ Slaine’s mind was moving at a thousand miles a minute. _“Asseylum is obviously worried for me and I shouldn’t have snapped at Klancain earlier.”_ Slaine shifted to look at Asseylum with his peripherals and saw her staring at him, heavy concern in her eyes.

_“Why am I so irritated though? Is…is it because of that time? No, no, Inaho shouldn’t be aware of what happened then. This behavior of mine is completely irrational.”_

“Slaine,” Asseylum spoke out, grabbing Slaine’s attention. “I just want to let you know that you really don’t have to keep everything bottled up all the time. Share your burden.”

“Share…my burden?” Slaine said it slowly, tasting the words as they came out. The thought of it kind of annoyed him though. “No one cares enough to pick up someone else’s issues, Asseylum.” Slaine chuckled a bit, though it was dark and lacked any mirth.

“That’s not true!” Asseylum snapped. “You have friends, people who care enough to help you!”

“Like who?” Slaine was trying to keep his tone under control.

“Like..like Inaho-san!” She shouted and Slaine was stupefied by that answer. “You know he asked me earlier if you usually hid your emotions and I was going to tell him…”

Slaine flared up in an instant, “you were about to tell him about my”

“…but!” Asseylum kept going, “he stopped me saying that he’d like to hear personal things about you from you!”

Slaine was dumbfounded. He believed that Inaho would want to hear new information as soon as possible to file it away for later, when it was of use to him.

“Still,” Slaine continued, adrenaline still fueling him, “why Inaho of all people?”

“Because you’re comfortable around him.”

“Because I’m comfortable around him…”Slaine repeated her words, the realization of why he was so irritated suddenly dawning on him.

Asseylum’s face softened when she noticed the realization pass Slaine’s features. “Now you should go and talk to him. You don’t want him thinking you hate him, right?”

“Sorry, Asseylum…” Slaine prepared to turn around and run back towards the school.

Asseylum peered behind Slaine and chuckled, “it shouldn’t be ‘I’m sorry’ but a thank you,” she smiled. “I’ll be leaving now though. Don’t want to get in the way!” She waved and turned to leave.

“Wait? What?” Slaine questioned, confused, as he watched her leave. Just as he turned to walk back up to the school, he saw him.

“Slaine,” Inaho said as he made his way towards him.

Slaine began to walk the rest of the way to meet him.

“Slaine-”

“Inaho-”

“We need to talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holiday lovelies!
> 
> -LOL you should totally ignore any end notes from Chapter 9.  
> -I've been going through some tough times lately, therefore I don't know when I'll have time to update.  
> -I have no idea where this fic is going anymore.  
> -I have no idea how many chapters are left, but I refuse to abandon this!  
> -Thanks for sticking with me even though I am a mess.


	11. Hellish Resolve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“We need to talk.”_   
>  _Slain cried unabashedly._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW, its been a while since I updated.  
> This chapter was really really hard to write and I updated the tags specifically for it so please be careful! You can skip this chapter if you feel you may not be able to handle it!  
> Thank you again for those who continue to read this! ILY ❤︎❤︎❤︎

_“We need to talk.”_

Slaine wanted to laugh. He was so in sync with the guy that he used to think of as nothing more than a rude underclassman. The guy he’s only been friends with for a little. The guy who doesn’t know anything about him or his past, but, also, the guy he now feels most comfortable around. The guy he feels can accept his past. The guy he is now going to trust.

“Orange, let me go first before I lose all will to do this.” Slaine stood firm.

He needed to say it now or else he’d close in on himself. Who knows when another episode would occur? Who knows when Slaine would say ‘fuck it’ and lose himself? Even Slaine could feel it. He was losing his cool, he was scared.

“Let’s head to the park first then,” Inaho motioned towards the entrance, “unless you want to speak out here in the open?”

Slaine glanced around. He never realized that they were standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Good suggestion.” Slaine said and began to walk towards the park, leaving Inaho behind him.

“Slaine,” Inaho called the minute Slaine turned his back on him. “Slaine,” Inaho tried again, a little more force to his voice. He knew that Slaine could hear him.

“Slaine, we won’t get anywhere if you shut me out before you even let me in.”

Slaine stopped. It hurt a bit hearing that but it was also electrifying. Inaho’s words were like a defibrillator to his emotions, suddenly he felt them come back to life. Slaine turned towards Inaho. It was a slow movement, almost robotic. He was scared to face Inaho. How would he express himself? How is he supposed to suddenly share his life? The realization that he was finally about to share a piece of his life with Inaho was frightening.

“Slaine, I don’t want you to feel like I am pressuring you.” Inaho’s face was blank, at least to the unperceiving eye. He doesn’t know how he does it but Slaine could tell that Inaho was genuinely worried. Maybe it was the ever so slightly furrowed brow or hand that twitched up to physically express his words but it was relaxing. Slaine scoffed then chuckled. Soon it turned into a full on laugh and he was clutching his stomach with his left hand and wiping tears with his right. Inaho looked on with confusion.

“Inaho,” Slaine was still trying to catch his breath, wiping away a single tear that made its way down his face. “Kaizuka Inaho.”

“Slaine, are you sure you’re okay? We can always do this another time when you’re more comfortable.” Inaho was now noticeably confused by Slaine’s new attitude. “Shall we go to the station?”

“No, I’m fine. I just needed a little boost. Let’s go towards the park.” Slaine walked towards the swings. His shoulders were relaxed and he gave off a more soothing vibe now. It was similar to when Inaho first saw him sleeping on the train, very calming and very beautiful.

Inaho paused dead in his tracks. _“This cannot be happening.”_

“Inaho?” Slaine was already swinging, wondering why Inaho decided to stop halfway between the entrance and the swing set. “Orange?”

That seemed to get his attention. Back to his blank face, Inaho looked up and continued on his way towards Slaine. He didn’t sit in a swing though, instead opting to sit on one of those little animals that move forward and back.

“You did that on purpose didn’t you?” Slaine was now glaring at Inaho, no real fire in his eyes.

“I did.” Inaho glances down at the bat that he was sitting on. “It is strange how there just happened to be a bat here though. Right, Bat?”

“Oh, I didn’t know you knew what sarcasm was?” Slaine raised his eyebrow. This kind of banter was nice. It made him relax further, Inaho really is someone he was comfortable around.

“I don’t see the point in commonly using it.” _“It’s good that Slaine has relaxed further though.”_

“Hmm.” Slaine hummed.

The swing continued to creak and Slaine could feel Inaho’s eyes on him. Maybe it was time for him to start then. His feet caught the ground as he stopped the swing, it was now or never.

Except that maybe it was actually going to be never. Slaine began staring at the ground, his throat starting to swell. He was losing it, his head throbbed and heart thumped too fast for someone only sitting on a swing. The air suddenly felt like it had gone up a few degrees and his breathing felt choked.

 “Ina-” his voice cracked.

Slaine couldn’t think. Everything was too jumbled up, he couldn’t even tell if he was talking or flapping his lips now. Slaine’s eyes didn’t leave the ground but an unnoticed hand made him jump. At first, he was alert. Why was someone touching him? What did he do wrong? Then he realized that it was cool, especially for his skin that felt much too warm. He leaned into the touch for a minute before he looked up and remembered who it belonged to. Of course Inaho was going to notice. He looked resolute. He’ll tell Slaine, _“We can always do this again another time,”_ with that same monotonous voice that actually bleeds the words, _“I’m right here.”_

Inaho opened his mouth, “Slaine, we can always do-”

“You’re right here.” Slaine grabbed Inaho’s arm. “You’re right here. You are not a part of my past, you are in my present.” Slaine’s voice no longer wavered. He finally looked resolute.

Inaho looked at him, he was trying to read Slaine’s expression but it only proved to show that he was determined to go through with this. Suddenly the spot Slaine was touching was hot, it practically felt like it was searing his skin. The steadfast stare burning into him. _“Focus.”_

Inaho took a deep breath. He steadied himself. If Slaine was going to use him to stay grounded then he needed to make sure that he kept his head out of the clouds first.

“Go ahead.”

Slaine’s grip slackened and he took a big inhale, exhaling through his mouth. He repeats this multiple times, his chest rising and falling in a calming rhythm.

“Okay, this time I can do it.”

* * *

The light was incredibly bright, shining on the water in front of him. He moved his small hand up to cover his face, his hair also catching in the light and temporarily blinding him. A cool breeze blew by carrying the scent of the grass that surrounded his behind. Slaine turned and looked at his house. A bit farther from the rest but that couldn’t really be helped since his father wanted to keep some distance from the neighbors so he wouldn’t have to force any interaction with them. He was always cooped up in his room doing something that he told Slaine would change the world as they knew it. It was a bit hard to comprehend though, especially since Slaine was only 6 years old. The only thing he knew was that whatever his father was doing must be more important than his mother since she left them when he turned 4.

Slaine entered the small, brown house. It may not have his mother but it was cozy and the inside was more spacious than it looked. It was cozy, but lonely. Instead of playing with friends, Slaine would stay outside to observe the nature and then move back into the house to study. It was fun or educational at least. His father would even leave him room every now and then and would complement Slaine on his good practices. Those were Slaine’s favorite moments. They filled the void in his heart, if only temporarily.

His father was a man of few words. That’s why it was Slaine’s goal to have his father speak to him, even if it was only a “good morning” or a “good night.” The first year following his mother’s departure was an easier time. He actually made conversations with his father, as the months went by however; even the “good mornings” and “good nights” became rare. By the time it was his 6th birthday, he was only offered the few compliments his father would sprinkle on him once every few weeks, if even that.

It couldn’t be helped. His father was going to change the world. He couldn’t infringe on that or else he’d be the reason the world failed. That was a lot of weight he carried. Slaine often thought why he had to be the child that this happened too. This distance was suffocating. However he wouldn’t, no, he couldn’t, complain.

One day, Slaine was ecstatic about his grade and couldn’t wait to show his father and be complimented. He was so proud of his grade that he just had to show his father, even when he was warned beforehand not to enter the work study.

Slaine’s father must’ve chosen to ignore him in the moment because he didn’t even spare a glance in his son’s direction.

“Look! I got commendable grades!” His son quipped.

He was too tired and too focused to pay attention to anything of that caliber.

Slaine just tried again.

“Look!” He rustled the paper. “I got the highest grades out of my class!”

Slaine’s father was running out of patience.

“Why do you never pay attention to me? This is why mom left, isn’t it?” Slaine questioned, loneliness seeping through his voice.

That was the final straw. His father quickly got up without warning and snatched the paper from the boy. Not even looking at it, he tore the papers and got down on his knees, hands placed on Slaine’s shoulders.

Slaine hiccupped and tried holding back tears. His father was uncaring though.

“Why do you not understand the work that I am doing?” His father shook him lightly. “You and your mother are exactly the same. I am doing this for the betterment of mankind, yet she ran from me! Was that supposed to shake me up, make me lose ALL OF MY PROGRESS?” His grip was tightening and he started shaking Slaine with more force.

The tears were clearly flowing down Slaine’s cheeks now. “You’re scaring me…”

“I scare you?” His father droned, tasting the words. He obviously reached another conclusion however.

“I, the man who is slaving away every day for mankind, scare you? I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders, while you do nothing but play around each day and add more burdens to my life!”

Slaine felt a prick, his father’s nail dug too deep and broke his skin. It took all his control to not start wailing while his father yelled. 

His father let go of him and let out a deep sigh.

“Get out and take your trash with you.” His father pointed at the paper he had just torn up and had turned around.

Slaine immediately tried to comply by standing up but his fear was too much and his legs gave out. Still crying, Slaine started to crawl to pick up his papers before his father could turn around and get angry at him again. He finally willed himself to stand and made his way towards the door, small hiccup sounds escaping him when his father turned back around roaring.

“YOU INSOLENT BOY. YOU’RE INCESSANT WHINING AND BARGING IN HAS MADE ME LOSE MY PLACE. WHY I---”

Slaine didn’t hear the rest of it. Instead, he ran. He ran out the work study, out the front door, and as far away from his house that he could. He ran fast and dared not a glance back in the chance that his father might’ve followed him.

When Slaine had ran until he could run no more he stopped and looked at his shoulders. He was right, he really was bleeding.

The image of a cozy house shattered from that moment on. That place was hell, and that was only the first instance.

* * *

The second, third, fourth, continuously. These incidents never seemed to stop over the years. No, instead it got worse. His father turned to smoking as a stress relief, but that only screamed danger to Slaine. Not even a whole year later, Slaine started to wind up with cigarette burns on the soles of his feet. They were hidden from everyone, but caused him constant pain whenever he walked.

Only one girl had taken note of the way Slaine winced whenever he walked at school. Asseylum was like his blessing, a beautiful escape from the harsh realities of his home. It was so pure, but so sad how naïve Asseylum was.

He left hints for her, but he was much too scared to voice it. Voicing it meant accepting it and acknowledging the fact that he didn’t deserve this. It had always stuck in his mind though. No matter what he was going through, one day his father would save the world and with it, stop his abuse.

Years of this went by, until, one day, something inside Slaine snapped.

Slaine never got used to all the beatings. He was emotional and his tears were a way for him to subconsciously prove that he knew he didn’t deserve this.

His father was frustrated, he was taking it out on Slaine again. It was common, routinely, like clockwork, until one day it wasn’t.

Slaine’s father never went for the face. He couldn’t allow such visible proof or else the police might come and halt him and his work, but something snapped in him. His son’s crying face was too much for him, so he slapped him.

“Stop your unnecessary crying.”

Something tore in Slaine’s mind.

“Your expressiveness is too much. It reminds me of your mother.”

Tear.

“Your mother was always so animated. It was easy to tell her emotions. Ah, just like an open book."

Tear.

“You are just like her. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe that’s why I am so stressed? Why I take it out on you?”

Tear.

“It relieved me a bit. To see you, the spitting image of that woman, suffering. That woman started it, but you continued it that day a few years ago when you barged into my study. She also did the same when she told me she was leaving, but you, you came in so happy, so proud of yourself while I struggled on my work alone. That woman was also proud, telling me she was leaving in such a sure tone. I couldn’t crush her spirits, but I can crush yours.”

Snap.

The tears stopped. They stopped for good in that moment.

Slaine tried to remember his mother, what face did he last see her with? Ah, yes, Slaine’s lips turned slightly upwards and his father flinched back a bit. Slaine’s face was the same as his mother’s empty, cold smile.

His father lashed out. Hitting him until his own knuckles were bloodied, but that smile never left Slaine’s face.

* * *

Asseylum didn’t know what happened. Slaine hadn’t come to school for two days but the next time he did, he was changed. He had closed himself off, became unapproachable. Even Asseylum could not reach out to him. Whenever she did he just answered her with a cold, meticulous smile. His emotions nowhere to be seen.

It continued like this for years until one day, when Slaine was 12, he got a call and rushed from the school.

His father was in the hospital. It was a stroke and they didn’t know whether his father was going to survive the night.

She went to the hospital and saw Slaine as always. Slightly pale and with that broken smile plastered on his face.

His father died that night and it was only after his death did she learn of his abuse.

* * *

His father’s words had played on repeat in his head for years. Slaine would never let his father get the best of him again. He closed off his emotions, locked and sealed.

He always contemplated it. Was it truly his fault things ended up the way they did?

Years went by where Slaine had distanced himself, even from his previous savior. Asseylum’s voice still rang like bells to him, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything. Maybe her worry for him was like a lifeline, keeping him attached to his sanity.

One day he received a call. His father had a stroke and was rushed to the hospital. Apparently a door-to-door salesman happened to come to their house and heard a loud crash from inside prompting him to call the ambulance.

Slaine found that almost laughable. His father specifically chose a house more secluded than most but was still lucky enough to be saved by a passerby.

Slaine arrived at the hospital and was told that his father was still in critical condition but that night would be hard to get through. Slaine walked in and stared at his father. He doesn’t know how many hours passed by but his father stirred and looked at him.

“Are you glad this happened?” His father asked.

Slaine didn’t reply, instead showing him that hated smile.

His father only stared at him then sighed.

“Get that disgusting smile off your face. You’re so creepy, acting like a robot.”

Slaine still didn’t change facial expressions.

His father must’ve felt enough was enough and turned around, signaling Slaine to leave.

Asseylum came to the hospital as soon as she heard the news. She immediately went to Slaine and tried to comfort him, it was still so naïve but kind of touching.

A second stroke came and took his father’s life that night. Slaine didn’t cry.

* * *

While the funeral was being put together and the matter of Slaine’s guardianship was being discussed, the police came.

They brought two pieces of news with them. First, Slaine’s mother had been dead for years and that is why she cannot take legal guardianship of him. By the date they tell him she died, it was right around the first time his father started abusing him. The second piece of news was that they were aware of the abuse.

When the ambulance had come to take his father to the hospital, they had noticed some random blood stains around the house and contacted the police. The police came to the logical conclusion that someone or something may have been abused and asked for Slaine’s cooperation.

He told them everything.

At the funeral it was decided that Slaine would be taken in by a distant relative, Saazbaum. Still he didn’t cry.

In a matter of days he was packed up and ready to move. He said his goodbyes to everyone, but felt especially torn by saying goodbye to Asseylum.

It was only then when he landed and moved to his new place did he finally cry. Slaine didn’t know what triggered it specifically. He hadn’t cried in years, but a sudden wave of self-pity and relief washed over him. He cried because he endured so much for so long thinking that his father was going to save the world, but he only died leaving unfinished research and a broken son behind. He also cried because he was finally free. He left that hellish place and his father behind.

Slaine doesn’t remember how long he cried for, but that was the first semblance of his emotions returning. He got along with Saazbaum and his wife, and they truly treated him like he belonged. He made friends in his new place and even started contacting Asseylum again, speaking to each other on a regular basis.

Slaine was rarely triggered, but he hated himself when he was. He would go back to that closed off smile used to protect himself from a dead man who only forced Slaine into a corner because of a dead woman. Slaine learned to cope and recover.

Then he moved to his current town.

* * *

 

Slaine was looking down. He couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with Inaho.

_“How will he think of me? Will this lower his opinion of me?”_

“Slaine,” Inaho called out.

Slaine jumped in place. He didn’t want to look at him.

He heard Inaho get off the bat and make his way towards him. Inaho’s feet stopped right in front of Slaine and, for a moment, he wondered what he was going to do until he felt a cool hand grip his own.

“You are going to hurt yourself if you continue gripping the swing this tightly. Your knuckles are turning white.” Inaho pried Slaine’s hands off the swing’s chain. “If you need to squeeze anything then squeeze my hand instead.”

The shocked of Inaho’s suggestion forced Slaine to look up into unwavering eyes. Slaine is tempted to look away, but finds that he can’t. In the meantime, Inaho had laced their hands allowing Slaine to squeeze it if he wants.

Slaine is a bit stunned when Inaho’s eyes widen a bit, but realize that his vision is blurring.

“Huh?” He questioned and brought his free hand, the one not laced with Inaho’s, to his face and realized that he was crying. It was strange, he didn’t even know why he was crying.

Inaho let him though and for the first time since he cried in front of Saazbaum, Slain cried unabashedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI, so I know its been forever since I updated but this semester really kicked my butt. Moving on to actual notes.
> 
> * This chapter was really hard for me to write, which also delayed it, because I felt so many different emotions while writing it. I originally planned to stop the chapter after the first incident, but I felt that would be unfair to the readers because I am not that mean. Plus, it would really pain me to prolong Slaine's pain.  
> * It might seem that I left out some details or moved this chapter along too quickly, but I was actually really hurt while writing this and didn't want to make it anymore visual than I had too. Sorry, if this disappoints anyone.  
> * I have no idea how many more chapters are left. I honestly had some sort of plan when I began this but I have completely gone astray from that.  
> * I wasn't expecting this to be this slow a build, but I hope you forgive me for that with Inaho's earlier acknowledgement for somethings (;  
> * It is now Summer break and I will absolutely try my hardest to finish this fic by the end of Summer, especially since this should have been the hardest chapter. I am writing another fic,however so I need to work out a schedule where I can juggle both of them around.
> 
> THANKS FOR READING! I LOVE YOU GUYS!


	12. Running Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _They were both panting, heaving huge breaths of air as if it was their first time breathing. The bystanders had looks ranging from confusion to worry for the two boys that barely held their bodies up._

Inaho had never been one to comfort. It put him in an awkward position as his skills were severely lacking. However, he felt relief as Slaine allowed himself to unravel in front of Inaho. It meant that he trusted Inaho and that he was finally revealing himself instead of building up any walls or inhibitions.

Inaho watched Slaine, wondering if he should unlock their hands or not. Personally, he felt nice like this. That was the problem. Inaho normally wouldn’t take any kind of enjoyment out of holding hands with anyone, so why was Slaine any different?

Inaho internally sighed. He wasn’t an idiot, and definitely not clueless on what his previous thoughts might have been indicating. He just didn’t want to accept it. He surely wasn’t going to admit it either, that Slaine had become a special entity in such a short amount of time.

Slaine was still crying but Inaho couldn’t get over how beautiful Slaine’s face looked. Slaine’s eyelashes were long, glistening from the tears that reflected the twilight that had slowly surrounded them.

Quick seconds slowed to dragging minutes. How long had he been sitting here just staring at Slaine?

Eventually, Slaine’s sobbing turned to sniffles and hiccups of former wails.

“…Inaho?” Slaine looked up and the remaining tears fell from his face. His eyes were red and voice hoarse, but a certain shine had reentered his eyes.

“Inaho,” Slaine tried again when Inaho didn’t respond the first time. “Inaho, my hand. You’re squeezing it too tightly.” Slaine smiled a bit.

Inaho looked at their intertwined hands before he let go. A pang of loneliness hit him when the warmth of Slaine’s hand was gone, but it’d be irrational for him to grab Slaine’s hand again.

“I didn’t know how to comfort you.” Inaho shifted awkwardly. His recent realization dragging in his mind. “Sor-”

“Thank you.” Slaine interrupted him. “Thank you for listening and for being here.” Slaine was smiling, not that hollow shell of a smile he tried to pass off earlier in the day. This smile was bright, like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders.

Honestly, Inaho wanted to look away. He’d never been in this kind of a situation before and he didn’t want his face to betray any of his emotions. He didn’t though. His desire to burn Slaine’s smile into his brain was  too overwhelming.

Inaho pushed all his current thoughts to the back of his mind. He’ll review them later, when he’s alone. His first priority was making sure Slaine was okay, to show Slaine that he cares about his wellbeing.

Inaho closed his eyes briefly before focusing again on Slaine’s face.

“Thank you for sharing with me.” Inaho didn’t waver, “it was brave of you to do that.”

Slaine could feel the color rush to his cheeks. Out of every possible way the conversation following his crying could have gone, Inaho complimenting him wasn’t one of the outcomes he predicted.

He knew Inaho could tell that he was baffled. Inaho was relentless though.

“You are very strong. I’m happy you could trust me after I triggered you. Slaine, tha-”

Slaine rushed to cover Inaho’s mouth with his hands. “Stop talking.” He glared at Inaho and knew very well that he was practically a tomato at this point. “You are so embarrassing.”

Inaho simply laid his hands on Slaine’s arms before removing them from obstructing his face.

“You’re feeling better,” Inaho stated. He could’ve mentioned it differently, instead asking if Slaine was feeling better but it was evident that Slaine had loosened up again. Inaho wouldn’t mention it, but in the span of a few hours he came to miss Slaine’s reactions.

Slaine moved his hands to cover his face instead. “Only you, Orange, can be so sappy with such a straight face.” Slaine groaned.

“And only you, Bat, can become so animated in a matter of seconds.” Inaho paused for a bit, wondering if he might have stepped on a landmine right after fixing his previous mistake.

Slaine only glared through his fingers, an obvious act of playful anger.

Inaho let out a breath that he didn’t even know notice he was holding and relaxed his shoulders, the corner of his lips coming up to form a ghost of a smile.

“AH!” Slaine gasped, “you smiled!”

“I have no recollection of mentioning that I never do.” Inaho’s comeback was so like him that Slaine had to physically refrain from rolling his eyes.

During their conversation, twilight had turned to dusk and ultimately night. The two didn’t seem to notice the time passing by until Slaine’s phone buzzed in his pocket.

“Oh sorry, I have to take this.” Slaine stood from the swing he had been seated at for so long and excused himself for a moment. The lack of movement from sitting for so long had taken its toll and Slaine stumbled a bit when he got up.

Slaine quickly looked up and realized Inaho was covering his mouth.

“Don’t laugh,” Slaine barked at him before he turned his attention back to the caller on the other end.

Once Slaine’s back was to Inaho, he went ahead and allowed a slight chuckle to escape- well more like a shaking of shoulders- but it was the first time in a while. Inaho knew that he was smiling and tried to hide it when Slaine glanced over his should. To make sure Inaho wasn’t laughing.

Inaho watched Slaine’s figure from behind. Slaine was, in every sense of the word, captivating. It wasn’t just his looks, it was the way he presented himself. The way he would consider everything seriously and allowed his body to reflect his emotions. It was awe-inspiring…and the complete opposite of Inaho.

Inaho sighed. He was in for quite a journey.

While Inaho was lost in his thoughts, Slaine had made his way back to him.

“I thought I told you don’t laugh,” Slaine pouted, and Inaho felt a slight thump in his chest.

“You never saw me laugh.”

“You never denied that you laughed.”

“I never confirmed that I did.”

“You are insufferable, Orange!” Slaine exasperated, but he chuckled at the banter. It was so nice to finally open up and have someone that he could do this with.

Inaho made no comment to that and, instead, proceeded to check the time. “It’s late, we should go.” Inaho got up and dusted himself off.

“Hey, Inaho,” Slaine started as soon as Inaho and him reached the park entrance. Inaho recognized that glint in Slaine’s eyes and predicted Slaine’s next words. “Let’s race.”

He had predicted correctly. “No,” his response was instant. “You clearly proved that you could beat me in a race already.”

“You’re no fun. Let’s place a bet on it then?”

Inaho contemplated it for a moment before agreeing. “What is your condition?”

Slaine stood and thought for a while. Resignation in his eyes for not coming up with anything until he was suddenly struck with an idea.

“You have to send me a picture of you doing an embarrassing pose!”

Inaho wanted to back out of the bet. The odds of winning weren’t in his favor and he never expected a request like that from Slaine. However, his pride would not allow him to say no. He just had to win.

Inaho looked at Slaine for a bit, before he glanced at their pathway back.

“Slaine.” Inaho wasn’t looking at him, “go.”

Inaho started to sprint down. He could imagine the look of surprise that must be imprinted on Slaine’s face at the moment, but he had no time to look back and check. It only took a moment for Slaine to recover and Inaho could hear the footsteps quickly approaching him.

“Orange, that was cheap!” Slaine shouted.

Inaho didn’t respond. He made a mental note to say something later, but all his energy would be dedicated to making his legs move as fast as possible. Slaine closed the distance relatively quickly, but he expended a lot of energy doing so. It would be impossible for him to make a last sprint to the end.

Inaho ran. His bag was thudding against his side and his feet hitting the pavement added to the night melody. His pants mingled with Slaine’s, but they only served as the chorus. It was kind of surreal. Just them running as fast as they could with only the moon and stars watching. Cicadas and crickets buzzing and chirping in the background like a sonata. Their feet became the bass to the night song. Inaho wasn’t a romantic, but he felt like that moment belonged to them and them alone.

Inaho started to pull ahead when he saw the station. The lights and sounds of other people indicted that their race was about to end. The entrance to the station was only a bit away and Slaine was still slightly behind him. Inaho wondered what his back looked like to Slaine. He wondered if Slaine was having any thoughts about how desperate Inaho must seem to win.

The entrance was right in front of him. He would win. Inaho relaxed slightly to see that the end was here.

“No. You. Don’t!” Slaine gathered his remaining energy.

Inaho thought it seemed kind of cliché, like one of those movies that Yuki liked to watch. Slaine pushed forward, matching himself to Inaho. Inaho was honestly stunned and intrigued by the face Slaine was making as he continued to move up. It felt as though everything was in slow motion.

Inaho had sped up too, pulling himself even to Slaine. It was head-to-head and Inaho refused to back down. Just a few more steps!

Inaho gained the advantage. He knew that people were watching them and that they were being reckless, but his goal was right there. Inaho was definitely going to feel the effects of this run later.

15 more steps, Inaho was still in the lead, 10 more steps, Slaine had caught up again, 5 more steps, Slaine was ever so slightly forward but Inaho didn’t quit, goal.

They were both panting, heaving huge breaths of air as if it was their first time breathing. The bystanders had looks ranging from confusion to worry for the two boys that barely held their bodies up.

Inaho was still collecting his breath when he heard a laugh bubble from Slaine. It was lighthearted and, maybe to Inaho only, sounded like bells. Slaine continued to laugh for a bit before he turned to Inaho.

Smirk well-endowed on his face, Slaine faced Inaho, “it seems like it’s still my win.”

“It seems so.” Inaho finally collected himself, loathing the fact that he ever accepted Slaine’s condition.

“That was a dirty move back there.” Slaine and Inaho started to make their way towards the train, shaky legs and breathy voices.

“I said go,” Inaho replied.

“Yeah, after you started.”

“It was simultaneous,” Inaho defended, “the train is here.”

The two boys entered the almost empty train before they flopped unceremoniously onto the seats. They both wanted to talk, to say anything but the race had drained too much energy. It was only three minutes into the ride before Inaho saw Slaine’s neck leaning in an uncomfortable manner.

_“The ride isn’t long and his neck is bound to hurt,”_ Inaho reasoned to himself before he carefully moved Slaine’s head to rest on his shoulder. Inaho turned his head the opposite way and watched the night scenery go by.

Once they made it to their station, Inaho had gotten up before waking up Slaine.

“We’re here? Sorry, I fell asleep,” Slaine mumbled groggily. “Thanks for actually waking me up this time.” He teased.

“Your welcome,” Inaho brushed it off, but his tone was slightly lighter than usual.

The two walked towards the station exit together in comfortable silence. Inaho was thankful for that. It was so much better compared to that oppressive silence he felt from Slaine earlier in the day.

“Oh yeah.” Slaine stopped when they arrived outside the station. “What was your condition going to be anyways?”

Inaho froze for a while, pondering his options. He didn’t actually think of one, but he fought so hard cause he knew for a fact that he didn’t want Slaine to win.

“I was going to think of it if I won,” he answered honestly.

“I see. Well don’t forget to send me what I won today.” Slaine reminded Inaho and turned to leave. “Bye.”

Slaine had gotten a little away before he heard Inaho call out to him.

“Slaine,” Inaho waited until he turned around, “you were cool today.”

“…you are so embarrassing, Inaho.” Slaine quickly twisted back around and let the cool air hit his face.

Inaho also started to head home after Slaine had walked away. Yuki had bombarded Inaho with questions as soon as he made it back and he apologized for not contacting her. Yuki had noticed Inaho’s pleasant mood however and quickly tried to jump to assumptions that maybe her adorable little brother might have found himself a nice girlfriend. He swiftly dissuaded her and headed to take a shower.

Once Inaho was in bed, he allowed the events of the day to playback in his head. All of Slaine’s expressions, the good and the bad, the deep talk they had, his realization of how he viewed Slaine, how they made up, the race, Slaine’s laughter and the weight of his head on Inaho’s shoulder.

Inaho shifted on his bed. His thoughts finally getting off of repeat and ending with the question Slaine last asked Inaho.

_“What was your condition anyways?”_

Inaho continued to think about it as he lulled to sleep. His last thoughts were about how nice a photo of Slaine would’ve been.

* * *

Slaine was staring at his ceiling. Finally after taking his shower and cooling down, Slaine remembered the events of the day. It was long and tiresome, but Slaine couldn’t say that he hated it.

Inaho may have been his trigger, but he was also his release. It felt like he was finally free now that he had a friend that he confided in. Inaho was a reliable friend. Slaine had come to realize that when he saw Inaho’s back as they were running.

His back was broad and comforting, like it was there to visibly show Slaine that Inaho would carry anything alongside him. Slaine’s thoughts also drifted towards Inaho’s compliments.

_“It was brave of you. You are strong. You were cool.”_

Slaine could feel himself heating up again over _how embarrassing_ Inaho was and how unaffected he seemed by his own words. Slaine rolled around grumbling a bit about, _“stupid Orange,”_ or how he remembered that Asseylum once said that Inaho looked cute when he smiled and Slaine could now say that he agreed, if ever so slightly.

Slaine came to a sudden stop and forced himself to stop and sleep before he had any weird thoughts. The last thing that he remembered though was that Inaho’s hands are very gentle and his shoulder was relaxing and warm.

* * *

The next day Inaho woke up and definitely regretted the race when he was faced with the challenge of getting out of bed. He decided to make it a lazy day and did homework and played Aldnoah, making note that Slaine was getting off and on.

Sunday for Slaine was as any other. He finished up his homework and dedicated the rest of his time to playing Aldnoah. He noticed that Inaho was active during the day every now and then, probably playing in-between plans or something. When night came around and Slaine was about to go to bed, he received a message.

> **Orange**

_Picture attached below_

Slaine scrolled down and had to contain his laughter. He didn’t know how long he laughed for, but his sides were hurting and he had tears running down his face. Inaho had definitely followed through with the bet and even went above and beyond Slaine’s expectations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKS FOR READING, ILYSM.
> 
> * So I still don't know how many chapters this is going to be...oops.  
> * As you can tell, I obviously suck at making schedules and sticking with them. Sooooo, I AM SO SORRY FOR ANOTHER REALLY LATE UPDATE.  
> * I really love all of you who still take the time to read this. You guys are the real MVPs.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I hope your liking this fiction so far! It would be great if anyone wanted to leave any ideas that could help with the making of this fic! You can check out my tumblr at [azure-sekai](http://azure-sekai.tumblr.com/) and leave a idea there as well!


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